The Eaters
by Mechanist
Summary: When a terrible force begins killing children in London, the Hellsing Agency responds quickly. But when Integra is warned of an impending disaster, this force becomes amazingly vital in the salvation of the world. Anime based, tapering into manga.
1. The Siren's song

The rain fell upon the streets of London. It was one of those many days in England when rain fell without stop. The night sky lit up with a sheet of brilliant electricity. The pedestrians hurrying back and fourth across the night. Umbrellas were raised and people wore bright yellow slickers.

"Damn this bloody rain" muttered Bennett Thomas as he slipped in a puddle. It was 1:00 in the morning. His mother would be furious. He lived all the way in Paddington and he was smack dab in the middle of Greater London. The teenager strode through the crowds of people. His mother would think that he had been out hanging with whores and other kinds of street filth. Well, he had been, but he didn't want _her_ to figure that out. A drunken man bumped into him, and he threw him off with a snarl. Bennett continued down a side street. "I can make better time this way" he said. He passed an alley and was going to move on, when a voice called to him.

"Hello? Anyone out there?"

Bennett stopped and looked around. He couldn't see anyone. The streetlights had died in this area and it was dark. "Who is it?" he snapped, smoothing his blond hair aside. "Who's playing pranks?"

To his surprise, a face appeared in the alleyway. It was a girl of about seventeen or sixteen. She had long brown hair which flowed down her back. She was wearing a black tank top with a bronze skull and cross bones necklace. Her black jeans blended in with the darkness, as did the low cut black chucks she wore. "I'm not playing a prank, sir" she said. "I need some help."

By her accent (or lack thereof) she sounded like an American. The weirder thing was that she was wearing such odd clothes for a rainstorm…and yet she didn't look cold or wet.

"I'm in a bit of a hurry" Bennett said.

"But I _really_ need it" the girl said. She didn't move from her spot in the alley.

"Who the bloody Hell _are_ you anyway?" he snapped.

"Jeydan Dennis" she responded. She had an interesting face, he noticed as he approached. Her skin was very pale and her eyes were ice blue. Her thin lips looked soft and pink. Suddenly he felt a bit of an attraction to her. Then he shook his head. He had forced various prostitutes to commit strange and repulsive sexual acts, but he liked to think that he was an upstanding sort of man. He was eighteen and was going to be nineteen in three days. He wasn't going to have relations with some seventeen year old. Especially one he didn't know. His common sense began to come in. What if she had friends? What if it was a plan to rob him and take all his money? He began to notice something else. The girl seemed to emit a kind of dank odor…like something left too long in a closet…or a coffin.

But the other feelings were stronger.

"My name is Bennett Thomas" he said, his sneakers squishing in the puddles of water on the sidewalk. He walked up to the beginning of the alley. Now he could smell her again…and it was not a smell of coffins he smelled. It was the smell of hot biscuits and cream, and French crepes. Things he had adored as a child.

"Nice to meet you, Bennett" said Jayden. She grinned. "Now, if you could help me?"

"What do you mean...?" Jayden's hand grasped his wrist tightly, her slender fingers digging into his skin. Bennett said as he looked at Jayden again.

And saw the girl's face change.

Bennett Thomas began to scream then, but it was too late because no one heard him. No one at all.

_"Thank you Bennett" _the thing in the alley grinned, revealing a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Each tooth was a long point and had a reflective surface. They knashed up and down in hungry anticipation. The burning red eyes focused in on Bennett and he felt his bladder let go. He jerked and struggled, screaming all the while.

_"Oh, you'll like it Bennett" _the thing said. _"It's only scary if you struggle...and you won't be doing that, will you?" _its teeth ripped into his throat, tearing out his windpipe. There was a flaring sheet of pain...and Bennett Thomas knew no more.


	2. What Could It Be?

Integral Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing looked at the newspaper before her. She sighed and reached for an Advil. A migraine at 7:23 A.M. on this fine Monday morning? That wasn't a good sign. Although she couldn't blame her body for rebelling at the continuous abuse she had put it through in the past six months. The Tower of London was still being rebuilt after the horrific incident with that..._thing_ that called itself Incognito. She still had nightmares about that. Not that it helped with Alucard invading her dreams at his leisure. She had grown lax with his restraints recently…but that would change, she assured herself. She looked up from her paperwork when she heard a knock on the doors.

"Come in" she sighed. Walter C. Dornez, her faithful butler and one time Hellsing assassin came in with a tray of orange juice, fresh biscuits and tea.

"May I get you something else my lady?" he asked, looking at the crumpled Advil boxes.

"Ah…yes, _that" _Sir Hellsing said. "Well, I suppose I could use another. I just don't like to take too many of these things. They---" Walter shook his head.

"I fear that you are going to need them, Lady Integra" he said.

"Oh no. What's happened this time?"

Walter sighed and his face became sad. "A boy was murdered in Greater London yesterday. Or rather today, since the murder occurred at one in the morning. It was near where the…ah….Tower is located."

"What happened?" Sir Hellsing was immediately alert, the breakfast forgotten. "What evidence of vampires was there at the scene?"

"Our contacts have sent us _these_, my lady" said Walter as he placed several snapshots on the desk. Sir Hellsing, who had seen hideous things in her time as head of Hellsing shuddered.

"The boy in the pictures was eighteen and marked to be Bennett Thomas. He was going to go into law school" Walter said. "Well…until this happened to him."

The boy's throat had been all but destroyed. His head hung from a few strings of muscle and cartilage. Massive bite marks had been taken out of his body in several places. A chunk of his side was missing, making him look like an impossibly thin fashion model. One of his legs was missing and so was his left hand. But worst of all, was the expression on his face. It was not of pain, or suffering, but terrible, paralyzing _fear. _

"He was afraid when he died" Integra said quietly as she sorted through the gruesome pictures. "This…this doesn't appear to be the work of a single vampire…perhaps a gang of them then?"

"I wouldn't know" said Walter. "When I heard about this, I rushed to the police to get the information. I assume it was a large group of vampires to inflict the damage of this sort."

Integra nodded in agreement…but something about this whole affair did not sit well with her. Something stank about it all. She just couldn't put her finger on it. She had seen victims of both lone vampire attacks and gang vampire attacks. This was different. There was too much fear and pain in that expression on poor Bennett Thomas. "How are the police treating this?" she asked.

"They're looking at it as a wild animal attack" Walter answered.

Integra smiled grimly to herself. She wondered who would believe such a feeble excuse as that. Walter began to leave to do some other business in the house and Integra looked at the pictures and tried to figure out what could have done this. More of those atrocious FREAK chip vampires? No, this seemed to almost be the work of a creature as powerful as Alucard. But…she could just imagine Alucard's disgust when she showed these to him to brief him for his hunt. He showed distaste for the savage killings of the lesser vampires. She assumed that the higher undead shared his disdain for such waste. Besides…

"Walter!" she asked suddenly, causing the old butler to turn around.

"Yes, Lady Integra?" he asked kindly.

"Walter, would you happen to know…." She hesitated.

"Happen to know what?" Walter asked.

Integra looked at the large splashes and drops of blood on the concrete in the pictures. _Too much_ blood. "Would you happen to know if his blood appeared to be drawn out at all?" she asked.

Walter was silent for a minute. Then he responded. "No, my lady. His blood was not drawn out at all."

Integra sighed. "Thank you, butler" she said. "That will be all."

Walter bowed and left, knowing what she was going to do.

The minute she was sure he had left the room, Integra threw the pictures all over the room in an exclamation of rage. She ground her teeth. It seemed that a new foe was on the horizon.


	3. The Master Isn't Pleased

**Master Isn't Pleased **

Seras Victoria watched Captain Pip Bernadette and his "Wild Geese" mercenaries as they too practice shots at the targeting range around the rather large property of Hellsing Manor. The night was lit up by a large full moon.

"That's eet!" the one eyed Frenchman called to his men. "Zat's the way to do eet. Don't give any mercy!"

"Mr. Bernadette" Seras said. Pip continued shouting at his men to fire at this, and blows up that. Finally, the vampire could stand it no longer. "MR. BERNADETTE!!" Seras shouted loud enough to rattle the windows in the mansion.

"What is eet?!" he asked finally, his eye narrowing as he noticed her.

"Lady Integra finally has a job for us to do" she said. She couldn't resist a devilish grin as she added. "I hear it's something _really_ nasty too. You and your group can show off those skills you've been boasting about for six months." She had the satisfaction of seeing the mercenary captain's face become a pallid grayish green color as if her words had been poison of the highest order.

"Now…wait just a minute…" Pip protested. "We still need to hone our edge…" he looked at his group. "Eesn't zat right?"

"I'm ready, captain" said one of them. Pip shot this man a terrible glare.

Seras distributed the pictures to the mercenaries. Their reactions ranged from outright horror (some screamed and others vomited) and complete denial.

"Th…this can't be real…" Pip murmured. He had "read up" on vampires during the six months that he had been working for Hellsing. The problem was that Pip Bernadette's idea of "reading up" was consuming hundreds of vampire horror books, many of which had no basis in fact. Seras had to admit that showing them these bloody scenes of what had to be a vampire gang attack was _not _the best way to start them off on their first job. No doubt all of them were thinking how easily they could become like the boy in the photos. Seras had raised this point, but Integra had been insistent. "They need to understand just what they're up against" she said. And when the Master's Master put her foot down, there was no disobeying.

* * *

Integra looked out of her bedroom window. She could see the fields outside Hellsing Manor. She looked out at the city lights far away. What kind of monster was out there? What had done this? She _wanted _to say it was a rogue vampire…but once again her mind would not accept that. Then there was the matter of the blood which had not been drained. The monster had torn its victim apart like an animal. What made even less sense was that the body had not even been eaten, not really. Sure, some bite marks had been taken out of it, enough to make it really gruesome…but not nearly enough to nourish the beast that had the power to take that kind of damage. So what did it eat? Oh well, her tired brain said. It was just something else to bring up at the next Knights of the Round Table conference. It was annoying really. Then she stopped. What was she thinking? Out there somewhere was Bennett Thomas' mother and father who were now without a son. _Is she looking up at this full moon like I am? _Integra wondered to herself. The Hellsing Agency had been founded in this very house to make sure that people like Bennett and his family didn't suffer and die like this. And here she was, tacking off this incident as annoying because it taxed her already overtaxed mind.

"Do I sense a bit of discomfort, Integra?" asked a sly voice that seemed to come from the carpeted floor. Integra turned to see _him_ slink through the floor as though it were water. And it _was_ water to one of his kind. Alucard, one of the Great Ones, a true nosferatu. His red coat whispered against the carpet as he walked over to her. "Is something troubling you, my Master?" he asked. He stopped as he came up behind her. He laid his white gloved hands on her shoulders---white gloves which were the symbol of his bondage.

"Servant?" Integra asked softly.

"Yes, Master?" Alucard said.

She abruptly moved out from in front of him, causing him to stumble. She saw his calm face change into a twist of surprise. And then he laughed. It was warm rich laughter…yet it carried a hint of the night to it. She remembered when he had offered her his blood to drink after…Incognito. But she had refused. She would live and she would die like a mortal; that was her place in the world. But there were some nights…Integra brushed her hand through her hair to wash away those thoughts. "What is it, servant? Why have you not accompanied the Wild Geese on their mission?"

"Oh, that?" Alucard said. "I can guess what they'll find. It's most likely more of _them_. Those who have no idea what being a vampire is all about."

"There was no blood drained from the victim."

Integra thought she saw Alucard's eyes widen with shock, but he regained his composure before she could detect anything definite.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"I am _always_ sure" Integra said.

"Interesting" said Alucard. He walked around the room. He knocked a vase off the dresser and instantly one of his shadows reached out of his coat and caught it. "Perhaps I _did_ underestimate the situation a bit. I should have gone with them, instead of sending Police Girl to clean up the mess."

"Yes, you should have" said Integra. She was beginning to wish Alucard would leave. She was tired and tomorrow would most likely be worse than today.

Alucard however, appeared to have other plans. "Which means that we are alone together" said Alucard. "When was the last time we were ever, _truly_ alone together, you and I, Integra?"

"There's always Walter" she said, a bit too hastily for her liking. The restraints _would_ be renewed tomorrow.

"Oh, we needn't worry about _him_" Alucard smiled. "I think he'll---"

Integra cut him off, her voice loud and strong. "Alucard! Leave this bedchamber at once! By the Seals of Hellsing I command it!"

Alucard began to back toward the door, the runes on his gloves glowing an ugly red. "I am sorry it had to come to this Integra" he said, and he actually sounded genuinely sorry.

But, Integra thought as she snuggled into bed, that could all have been a very clever disguise.


	4. Gather Unto Me The Children

**Gather Unto Me the Children **

That morning, Integra bathed and showered, and descended into her office at her usual spot. She sat and began to pick up from the last days paperwork…when she noticed an envelope. Walter must have left it for her during the night. Wondering what it was, she opened it.

And gasped.

The envelope was full of pictures, and a police report. These were of another child, a girl named Veronica Sharon. She lived in one of the slums of downtown London. Her mother was a prostitute at a local bar. The Sharon girl was twelve years old. She had been found in an abandoned lot outside the bar. Her head had been removed and thrown a few feet away. The girl had been torn open, the organs chewed on. Once again, the blood had not been drained from the victim. The current explanation was that a patron of the bar had killed the little girl in a drunken rage. Integra shook her head. A human being didn't tear another's head from her shoulders and throw it away, even if they _were_ drunk. She began to growl deep in her throat. Another one. This had to stop. Integra looked up as Walter opened the doors with her tray of breakfast.

"Good morning Lady Integra, I---"

"What's going on?" Integra asked. "Did the men find _anything_ last night?"

"Well, it _was_ their first night out, and they---"

"What did they get?"

Walter sighed. "Three FREAKs and a few dozen ghouls. Not much, I know."

"Not much is right!" Integra exclaimed. "While they went out and did their little thing, another child was murdered!"

"My lady" Walter said gently. "Have you ever stopped to consider that this might just be a crazed murderer? Exceptionally brutal, but _human_ nonetheless?"

"Walter" said Integra. "You and I both know that this was no human killing. It practically says so in the police report." She skimmed the pages. "Let's see…here. Rodrick Dunworth, a plumber who was a regular customer said he heard Veronica's screams outside in the lot. He was the one who discovered the body. He thought she was playing around, so at first he did nothing…but then he heard a laugh. He says it didn't sound human." They both looked at each other. "We have to find out what is doing this, Walter" said Integra. "I don't care if it isn't a vampire. It is some kind of unholy monster and it must be stopped!"

"I agree" said Walter. He set her breakfast on the desk and looked out the window. "However, I doubt that we will catch the thing that is doing this anytime soon. This is not the only incident of a child being murdered in London in this manner."

Integra almost spat out her tea. "What? There is more of this?"

"There were several other murders last night. A particularly bad one was of a two year old boy, Matthew Bernard. He was torn open and his bottom half was…" Walter grimaced. "Missing from the rest of his body. His mother was inside with his older sister who was suffering from chicken pox. They too, heard a scream and a growl that sounded like nothing they had ever heard before."

"What the bloody Hell?" Integra said as she got up from her desk and went to the doors.

"Where are you going, my lady?" Walter asked.

"To talk to these Wild Geese. I also want Sir Penwood in the phone when I get back. I will inform him of these matters and see if he can get someone on it. I need someone to talk to these families and see if they had something in common." She shook her head as she walked down the stairs. What _was_ this thing? It sounded almost like a werewolf…but that couldn't be it, because they only came out at the full moon, and they devoured their prey completely. They had already ruled out vampires. There was _another _thing. Whatever it was, it only preyed on children. When Integra reached the mess room where the Wild Geese were, she could tell they were in their without having to go in. Loud cheers and laughter rang out from inside. Boasts of deeds done last night could be heard.

"You should have _seen_ that ghoul thing's head fly, man!"

"Yeah, I didn't see because I was busy taking out the _vampire_, you know!"

Integra flung open the doors of the mess room with a loud bang. Pip looked up from his beer mixed orange juice "Well, 'ello Sir 'Ellsing" he said. "We got a right lot of things done last night. I think that---"

Integra cut him off. "You still did not kill what is doing the murders we've seen so far" she said. "The creature that is causing the scenes in these pictures!" she spread the new pictures out on the table. The Wild Geese grimaced at the scenes.

"Mon Deu" said Pip. "And eet only kills keeds?" he gave a nervous giggle. "What are we dealing with 'ere? The Boogey Man?" that drew laughter from the mercenaries.

"That is not funny!" Integra snapped. "This _thing_ kills children, do you hear me? _Children!" _she was furious. "Do you think that funny? What is so bloody amusing about a child killing monster that is impossible to catch? This thing isn't a vampire! It isn't anything I'm familiar with."

"Then what should we do?" asked one of the mercenaries. "I'm against killing children, but if we can't find the damn thing, then there's no point in getting upset about it."

"Unless we're getting paid" Pip put in.

"Unless we're getting paid" the man agreed.

Integra left the room quickly to avoid any more arguments. What had happened to her _old_ men? They would be indignant and appalled at the thought of some creature out there brutally murdering children and leaving their bodies to rot without even eating or draining them. And Ferguson! He would have been enraged to think something like this was going on. Integra felt her eyes sting with tears at the thought of her former commander. These mercenaries had no understanding of _right. _This was most assuredly wrong. How could they catch this thing? Then she stopped suddenly. She knew what to do.


	5. Beast

**Beast **

Alucard wandered through the streets of London. The moon shone down on the streetlights. He was traveling the deserted areas, the pathways of the night. "Which one?" he asked as he sniffed the air. He could smell many, _many_ vampires here. Some were true turns, most were merely FREAKS. He could dispatch all of them with ease. "Which one of you is killing the children?" he stopped at an alley. The area where Bennett Thomas had died yesterday had been roped off by police tape. There was a guard at the scene. But he fell asleep rather suddenly on meeting Alucard's crimson gaze. Alucard thought about perhaps taking him…but he was forbidden to. Integra had only given him one objective in this case---search and destroy. But it had been so long…and he would most likely be dead in the morning of some other vampire; he could sense almost a hundred within these ninety miles. Suddenly he stiffened at an unfamiliar scent. _What is this? _he thought as he moved closer. The scent was so _sharp_ and so clear that he drew the Casull and Jackal, thinking that whatever he sensed was still here. But he saw that there was nothing. There was still blood and bits of flesh from the victim that had been ground into the cracks in the pavement. The unfamiliar smell came from these. Alucard stepped over the police tape and into the scene. All crucial evidence had been removed earlier by the police, but still…there was something so _alien_ about the smell that Alucard could not place it. It was not a werewolf that had taken this boy. He ran his mental finger over a list of supernatural monsters that came clamoring from the darkness. But none that he knew of, or had seen left this smell. He turned around and walked deeper into the alley. Then he saw it. At the back of the alley was a sewer drain. The lid of the drain was up. The scent was strongest within the depths of the sewer that it led to. Then his sharp eyes saw it. An orange scale that had been left on top of it. He picked up the scale. It was shiny and glowed with hidden light, even in the darkness of the alley. It looked like it had been left by a giant lizard or something. It was as big as his hand. Alucard examined the sewer cover and saw that the metal surface was scored with deep claw marks. Suddenly, as Alucard began to put the cover back on, a thick, monstrous chuckle bubbled up from the darkness below. Alucard whirled around and pointed the Casull and Jackal at the darkness below where the water rushed and roared in the darkness below London. As the vampire watched, orange, flaring eyes developed within the darkness. They glowed with terrible light that made Alucard think of the hated sun. Then they retreated back beneath the surface. The monster, whatever it was had gone to feed somewhere else. The vampire's body immediately dispatched into bats. They flew over the city of London, out toward Hellsing Manor. It was time to report that contact had been made.

* * *

Todd Springs was washing his face in the sink. His ten year old face was red from rubbing with a washcloth so that his mother would give him a piece of her apple pie. He began to run the water down the drain and turned to walk away, when a voice from the drain called him.

_"Todd…" _

Startled, the boy walked over to the drain. "H…hello…" he called. There was no answer, just the sound of water gurgling down the pipes. _Just imagining things_ Todd thought. He had just finished watching the movies _It_ where something lived in the sewer pipes and killed children. His mother had thrown a fit that his father had shown him that. Maybe---

_"Todd…come here…" _

Todd ran over to the sink. He stared in surprise. Smoke was beginning to rise up from the sink. He made his voice gruff and loud like his father's. "What's all this then?" he asked in his new, rough voice. "Who are you?"

_"Todd…I'm the spirit of your house…" _the voice responded. _"I look after you and your parents…I keep bad things away from the house. I protect you all." _

"Why are you talking to me?" Todd said. He went closer and wrinkled his nose. The smoke rising from the sink smelled bad, smelled like burned flesh and meat that has rotted. It smelled like sewers…but then he blinked. The smoke didn't smell like that at all! It smelled like apple pie, the apple pie that his mother was going to give to him---

_"Todd…are you afraid of me?" _the voice. The smoke coming from the sink began to stop.

"I'm not afraid!" Todd said. "Wait a sec! I'm gonna show you to my mum and then she'll---ahhhhhhhh!" Todd's voice broke off in a scream as he saw the thing emerge from the drain of his sink. He screamed even harder as it laid hold of him with its huge claws, claws that were caked with sewer sludge.

_"Yes Todd, that's alright here I come" _it said in a chuckling, rotten voice. Its teeth gnashed down on fresh child-meat and its claws rent through the bones and organs of its victim. And it fed…oh, how it fed on this one.

* * *

Integra was in a terrible mood. During the course of the day, she had been on the phone with several Knights of the Round Table. Unfortunately, even with their connections, MI-5 and MI-6 could not investigate. A few child murders, even of this gruesome nature didn't warrant all this fuss, Sir Islands had said. Integra new that soon enough they would come to their senses. But how many more would die while it was happening? She wondered suddenly of somewhere out there, a child was being killed, screaming and unable to get an adult to help them. _What if it _is _the Boogey Man? _she thought to herself. _What if this is a creature from legend…? _She became aware of Alucard as he phased through the wall. The look on his face was one she had never seen before---confusion and a bit of fear.

"What is it, Alucard?" she asked.

Alucard related what had happened to him, the unfamiliar scent, and the strange being that he had sensed and heard in the sewer. Integra felt a cold pit in her stomach. This was more serious than she had expected. "What did it do?" she asked.

"It left" said Alucard. He smiled suddenly. "I might finally have a worthy opponent."

"I hope not" Integra muttered. Her hand hesitated on the phone. Should she call them? Should she tell the Knights what had happened? No, she would tell them in the morning and think about it during the night.


	6. Demon In Daylight

**Demon in Daylight **

Jayden Dennis sat on a park bench, eating her fish and chips, enjoying her Saturday away from her parents and their stuffy mansion. "This stuff sucks" she muttered, looking at the cloudy sky. The daughter of American diplomats to the U.K. she didn't act like her parents wanted her to. She smiled to herself. Her friends back in the U.S. wouldn't believe what a great punk scene that Britain had going on. Jayden looked up at the sky, blowing a strand of her brown hair back. She was dressed in the same clothes she had killed Bennett Thomas in. Jayden drummed her black chucks on the ground. She sighed. The fish and chips weren't as good as the _other_ food she had discovered recently. The killings filled her with a rush of exhilaration. It was like a drug high. A drug that was delicious and nutritious. She had killed several people before, but they were adults and what she got from them was like eating stale bread. What did she get from them? The _fear_. The fear was what she lived for when she killed her victims. And who was better at fear than a child? It kept her healthy and made her feel like a million dollars. Jayden found it hard to pay attention in school now, with her mind always on the thought of the night. She didn't need the night to transform and stake out prey…but the cover of darkness proved useful. Her brow wrinkled in a frown. But she had been spotted one night. And spotted by a being of awesome power. A Great One, one of the true undead. She didn't know if he saw her, but she guessed that he had. She had laughed at the confusion on his face and she knew he had heard _that_. Jayden knew of vampires…but she did not fear them. They stayed away from her when she went near them, some of them unconsciously, and some of them with conscious thought to get away from a thing that filled them with fear. When she lived in Washington, after her transformation, she had deliberately gone into places that vampires hung out just to see what would happen. They shied away from her. She had taken at least nineteen children in the three weeks that her family had moved to Britain. The police were falling all over themselves to get the murderer who had been killing the children. They had come up with all sorts of explanations, ranging from more than one murderer, to copycat killers, to a pack of wild dogs. Jayden grinned and her blue eyes flared orange for a moment. She was more than that, more than mortal. She was Jayden Dennis. She was the Eater of the Young. Jayden felt her stomach growl. Tossing aside the fish and chips and wiping her greasy hands on her jeans, Jayden smiled. She was hungry…and for more than just ordinary food. _I wonder what the police will say when they get a killing in the daytime._ She smiled and walked over to one of the pumping stations nearby. Concentrating, Jayden called upon her power. She transformed, and flew into the pipe. She raced in the dank, stinking dark toward a light in the surface. She hunted. And when the prey was found, screaming in the corner of his father's bathroom, reading magazines not mean for little kids, she fed well.

* * *

Seras and Pip were waiting outside the doors to Integra's office. "Jeez," Pip said. The Frenchman had been taking this whole series of incidents in stride…until the events started happening more than one a night. Sometimes they would be no incidents at all…and others there would be many. "What if eet is ze Boogey Man?" the mercenary asked seriously.

"Come now captain, surely you don't _believe _in the Boogey Man?" Seras asked. She looked at the rain that was pounding on the windows of the manor. Integra's raised voice could be heard through the door. "I mean, when I was a _kid_ I believed in the Boogey Man…but I soon found out that there were things much worse." These last words were muttered, and Pip didn't hear it.

"Well…" the mercenary said. "If eet isn't ze Boogey Man, zen what _is_ eet?" he asked. _"What _could keep doing zees and not have gotten caught by now? A vampire would have been caught already." He looked out the window at the rainstorm.

"You're right" said Seras. "Like the Springs boy" she said. "He was killed in his bathroom by something, and there were no windows in the bathroom at all! It couldn't have gotten out of any other windows."

"I don't know" said Pip. "I'm just glad it hasn't come 'ere."

"We don't have any children" Seras reminded him. "Besides…the killings only seem to happen in the London area. We're out of the way of him…her…_it_."

* * *

Integra slammed the phone down in its cradle with a snarl of rage. "Damn those imbeciles!" Integra said. She had just finished talking to Sir Islands about the child murders. The Knights were still convinced it was a human killer. Integra wasn't. "How" she snapped "does a human kill a child in a windowless room and get away without a trace? Are they fools?"

"Of course" said Alucard as he appeared out of the shadows. He looked at the trees toss and turn in the storm. A crack of thunder sounded, followed by a blinding flash of lightning. "But I still haven't found anything that matches what I sensed in that sewer. I want to find it again" he said with a wide grin. "Is it _really_ so hard to understand, my Master?" he asked. "They're in denial. And who wouldn't be? They like to think that vampires are the only things out there…"

"Damn it, Alucard, I---" she was interrupted as Walter arrived with another letter. His face was dark and shadowed in the light.

"What happened, Walter?" Integra asked.

"Another victim" Walter said. This one happened just three hours ago."

"_What?" _Integra gasped. She looked outside at the rain and storm. "But it's the middle of the afternoon! These attacks only happen at night. What are the circumstances?"

Walter sighed. "It's not good. I have no pictures, as this was a high profile case, the police are being rather difficult about information. I was barely able to get the circumstances of death and the identity. The victim was a boy named Matthew Blake; he's the nephew of a parliament member. Furthermore, the killing was just as bloody as last time. He was found in a bathroom and the only thing besides deep claw marks in the floor and marble walls was the shower seemed to have exploded. The glass was everywhere."

"It seems our mystery killer is getting bolder" said Alucard. "Should I investigate it?"

"No" said Integra, adjusting her glasses. "Not now. But you are right. The killer is getting bolder, striking in daylight. Why can't they see that this thing is not a human being? Maybe _this _will convince them that there is something out there."

"What do you propose to do, Lady Integra?" Walter asked.

Integra smiled grimly. "What else? I'm going to investigate this myself. I can use my influence to gain entry to the scene. I want Seras and several police detectives here at the scene with me. Walter, I trust you to have these ready for me by the time she and I get there." She thought of something else. "I know that this is unlikely, but in the event that…_they_, meaning the Iscariot Section XIII get wind of these happenings, please kindly remind Father Maxwell that Britain is _our_ territory as is anything that happens here."

"Of course my lady" Walter said, sitting at the desk. "One more thing, before I forget. An American diplomat, a man knowledgeable about the undead, Parley Dennis is coming to visit us. Sir Islands referred him to the Hellsing Agency when he asked about vampires in this country. He and his family are coming for dinner around seven."

Integra closed her eyes. Great, another hassle and at a time like this! She mentally shot Sir Islands twice in the head and buried the body. "Thank you, Walter" she said to the elderly butler who smiled slightly, understanding her thoughts.

Integra put on a heavy raincoat to protect from the elements. Supplying herself with several boxes of her favorite brand of cigars she opened the door---and Seras and Pip fell inside the office.

"Uh…bonjour?" Pip said, his face blushing at being caught eavesdropping.

"I'm so sorry, Sir Integra!" said Seras. "We were…we were waiting and we heard Walter talking and…"

Integra helped Seras up. "I will forgive you this time" she said. "But if I catch _either_ of you doing this again, I will personally see that you receive severe consequences."

Alucard laughed darkly. "What have I told you, Police Girl?" he asked. "You aren't human anymore. You can use all sorts of powers to aid you…well, that is, if you drank blood like a true nosferatu."

"Look at the time, Master!" said Seras. "We really should be going if we're going get back and make that dinner date" she said, hurrying toward the door.

Alucard chuckled and disappeared.

"What should _I_ do?" Pip asked.

"Kindly _stay out of our way_" Integra said. "I want you and your men to disappear when the Dennis family comes over." She was silent as they got into the car, musing on the thoughts of another family that knew about vampires. Sometimes it was lonely work, being the only one of your family left. At the very least, Parley Dennis would provide interesting conversation.


	7. Close Encounter

**Close Encounter**

After an hour of driving in downtown London traffic, Integra reached the house. She and Seras pulled their hoods up against the rain. "What should I do, Sir Integra?" she asked.

"Just agree to everything I say" Integra muttered. "The detectives here should know who we are, but just in case, don't say anything until I have assured that they know about the implications of this killing."

When Integra's gloved hand knocked on the wooden door, a man with a low buzz cut of gray hair and dressed in the uniform of Scotland Yard opened it. "Hello?" he asked.

"Hello, Detective…Rowley" she said, looking at his badge. "I am Sir Integral Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing. I have come to investigate this case, on behalf of the Hellsing Agency of Great Britain and the Royal Protestant Knights."

Detective Rowley seemed a bit taken aback at this, but then he nodded. He led them into a spacious parlor that was decorated with portraits by artists that Seras had never heard of. "I've been awaiting your arrival Sir Hellsing" he said. "When my superiors first told me about this, I didn't believe a word of it" he said. "But then, I was sworn to secrecy, so I dismissed the other officers and here we are." He looked at Seras. "Who is this?" he asked.

"My assistant" Integra said. "Seras, introduce yourself."

Seras extended her hand. "Uh…Seras Victoria, Hellsing Special Forces. Nice to make your acquaintance…." She trailed off as she noticed that his neck was very sweaty from the heat of the house. Someone must have turned it up. She could see every individual fold of flesh in that neck. The veins that pulsed with life beneath…Her vision became clouded with red as she felt her eyes begin to glow.

"Seras!" Integra said, and Seras could hear her voice coming from very far away down the red tunnel.

"Y…yes Sir Integra!" she said. Then she stopped in horror. Detective Rowley was looking at her in surprise. She had bent in close to his face, as if she was going to kiss him. "Oh! I…I…" Seras felt her face heat up as she blushed at what she had almost done. At the same time she felt cold with fear. She had lost control again. She had almost…but no, she didn't want to think about that.

"Um…." Said Rowley. "I guess we'll…get to the scene then…" he said, still giving Seras a strange look. As they continued up the stairs, Detective Rowley began to explain. "Around 10:24, young Matthew had a friend over. His friend Tyler and he were playing hide and seek. Matthew apparently hid in his parent's bathroom. Half an hour later, terrible screams began to come from the room. His parents hurried in to the bathroom and found it locked. His father broke down the door, and found…his son." Rowley let the silence hang in the air. "Apparently, the boy had discovered girly magazines in there and had locked the door. He was reading these when the killer attacked. The body is still there…I didn't remove it on orders of my superiors. The scene has not been disturbed at all, Sir Hellsing." He began to go back downstairs. "Well, I'll leave you to your investigation, Sir Hellsing."

"I thank you for that" Integra said. "I have nothing but gratitude for the police. And I extend my condolences to Matthew's parents." They entered the top floor. They entered the parent's bedroom and Integra approached the bathroom. "Seras" she said. "I want you to wait out here. I will call you if I need you. I _do_ have a need for you, but that will come later."

"Okay, Sir" said Seras. "About down there…I'm sorry about that. I don't know what came over me. It was…"

"Quite alright Seras" said Integra. "Just be careful next time. If I hadn't been there, you do know what you would have done, don't you?"

"Yes, I do" Seras said quietly.

"Then I want you to think about that while you wait in here, Police Girl." Integra went into the dimly lit bathroom to take in the scene.

* * *

When Integra walked into the bathroom, the horrible sight met her eyes immediately. The bathroom had a gray tile floor and expensive marble walls. The vanity and cupboards were marble. A large mirror hung over the vanity. But that was spider webbed with cracks now. The lights were dim there, because most of the bulbs above the sink had been broken. Deep claw marks scored into the walls and floor. Blood was everywhere, all over the toilet and all over the sink, on the walls. A boy in a yellow shirt and red trousers lay on the floor. His face was missing; it was a mass of churned red meat. One of his arms had been ripped halfway off his body and his back was broken; Integra could tell by the weird way his legs were facing. "What did this to you?" she whispered. Her shoes crunched on broken glass. Integra looked at the shower and took that in as well. _Exploded_ was too mild a word. _Self destructed_ was better. The doors were bent frames of brass with shards of broken glass clinging to their insides. It was as if something huge had smashed its way into this bathroom through the shower drain. She moved in closer. Where the shower drain on the floor of the bathtub was, there was a hole that was about three feet across. The claw marks were especially deep in this area. A glimmer of something orange caught her eye. She reached into the tub thankful that she was wearing gloves. It wasn't that she was worried about fingerprints. This whole place had an _unclean_ feel to it, as if it were contaminated. It was a scale. Similar to the one that Alucard had found near the sewer. It shone in the dim light of the bathroom. It felt smooth and hard, almost armored. She put the object in her pocket for later. She got up from the tub and looked around one more time. She looked around at the scene and tried to force her mind to see if she had missed anything.

"I guess that's it" she said. "Seras---"

_"Integra…" _said a sudden voice.

Integra felt her body temperature plummet to zero. She knew that voice. It was her Uncle Richard's. She had not heard that voice in years, not since the day she had put a bullet into his head herself. But where was it…?

_"The children thank you for sticking up for them, Integraaaa" _the Richard voice said and broke off into a gurgling laugh. Integra shivered violently as she realized where it was coming from.

It was coming from the shower drain.

_"Thank you…" _said a teenage boy's voice.

"Who…who or _what_ are you?" Integra demanded.

_"Bennett Thomas" _the voice said. _"The monster tricked me, and then I died and it will get you too Integra, if you're not careful, if you're not…" _

Integra backed away from the shower, her hands to her face in horror. Now the voice was that of a little boy, and now a twelve year old girl, now another little boy, then a little girl. Integra backed up until she hit the door. She knew now that there was death in this place, that death was in the drain and she was powerless to get away.

_"I'm Bennett…I'm Matthew…I'm Veronica… we're all dead Integra and you'll soon be dead too, you and your pet vampire. You'll see, you'll see…" _

"Seras!" Integra yelled. She looked wildly at the door---but it was closed. Had she closed the door? She tried to push it open with her shoulder, but it remained closed...no, it opened a bit, then shut again as if some great weight was on the other side, pushing closed.

Then the door smashed down as Seras Victoria kicked down the door, her blue Hellsing Agency uniform sparkling. The gurgling voice disappeared and even the light seemed to get a little brighter. Integra fell to the floor, the force of Seras' kick knocking her down.

"Uhhhh…" she muttered. Seras knelt down by her. "Sir Integra, I'm so sorry, are you hurt? I heard you screaming and the door closed, and then I could hear some kind of laughing…"

Integra sat up. "…I'm fine, Seras. I think I will still be presentable for the affair tonight. Just as long as your Master doesn't pull any of his tricks."

"What happened?" Seras asked.

Integra looked back at the bathroom as the two of them walked out of it.

"I don't think I want to talk about it right now" said Integra as she looked back at the place.

Detective Rowley showed them out of the door. "Did you find anything to help with your investigation?"

"I think it was quite helpful" said Sir Hellsing. She left without another word.

"Bye, bye Miss Victoria" he said to Seras with a little wave. The vampire snorted in disgust and led Sir Hellsing to the car.

"Strange group" said the detective. He walked upstairs to the bathroom. He looked around at it. Gruesome crime, really. He wondered if---

His thoughts were broken off abruptly as a terrible, gurgling laugh came from the drain, sounding like it was clogged with sewage. Rowley saw smoke begin to rise from the hole in the shower. He fled the house soon after.


	8. Dinner With A Monster

**Dinner With A Monster**

By the time 7:00 had rolled around, everything in Hellsing Manor was ready. The Dennis family would receive full British hospitality. Walter was standing in the entranceway, ready to take coats. Integra stood in front of the floor length mirror in her bathroom. She was wearing a blue silk dress that was modest yet classy. It was perfect for an affair like this. "Most likely a _long_ affair" she muttered to herself. It wasn't that she was averse to meeting another vampire hunting family, but she didn't have time to be chatting around when there was an organization to run. Added to that, she was still feeling the jitters from the incident at the Blake house. It had unnerved her, mostly because it had used her uncle's voice. It had also addressed her by name and referred to her "pet vampire" so it had to have some knowledge of Hellsing and its works. This was a disturbing development. More frustrating was that though Integra had actually encountered the killer, she still had no idea what it was. She researched until 6:30 on its attributes and had found only unlikely results. The only _plausible_ one was a ghost. But a ghost that killed? She had heard of such things---in horror movies. This was real life and such silliness didn't occur. And whose ghost would it be? Her Uncle Richard's? The thought of her slimy Uncle Richard's ghost lurking underneath London and killing children was actually so appalling that Integra began to shudder, goose bumps appearing on her bare arms. No, it couldn't be…the creature had used her uncle's voice to throw her off…and besides, if it _was_ that bastard's ghost, why had he chosen this time of all times to begin mischief? Integra walked out of her bedroom and down the stairs to await the Dennis. As she reached the grand hall, a black suited figure rose up through the floor.

_"Alucard?!" _she said, jumping back. The No Life King was dressed in a fine Armani suit with a red silk tie. He wore a white shirt under this. His white gloves were polished and shiny. His hair was worn in a long ponytail kept by a gold ring.

"Does my appearance surprise you, my Master Integra?" he asked. "If so, then your surprise is only surpassed by mine. You look quite the little lady. So much different from the girl I encountered down in the dungeons."

She shuddered suddenly, and once again Integra saw a genuine emotion besides amusement on Alucard's face: this time it was concern. "What is it, Master?" he asked. "Is it that thing?" she had told him all that had happened at the Blake house and he still did not know what it was.

"Yes…thinking about that brings Richard to mind" she said. "And it also---"

"Stop tugging!" an irate voice interrupted them. The two turned to see Walter and Seras engaged in what appeared to be a tug-of-war. It was a ridiculous scene. Walter was wearing his best tuxedo and Seras was wearing a red dress similar to Integra's. The outfit had a long length of silk and it was loose, trailing the floor. Walter was trying to get Seras to tie the thing up in a bow. But Seras was having none of it. "Get away, Walter!" Seras said, her red eyes narrowed in anger. "It looks better trailing on the floor!"

"Miss Victoria" Walter said in that voice he saved for when someone was being extremely tiresome, "it will not do to have the thing getting dirty. If you would just stay still---I don't want to have to use my wires to restrain you."

Seras leaped up onto the ceiling, her dress flipping to show her panties. "Ha! I'd like to see your stupid wire things reach up here!"

Walter sighed and began to take his special gloves out of his pockets, when Alucard shook his head. "I think you look interesting that way, Police Girl" he said. He positioned himself to get the best view. "Perhaps you should stay that way throughout the dinner party. I'm sure it would give Mr. Dennis a relief."

"Master!" said Seras as she jumped back to the floor, landing awkwardly in her heels. "I'll tie it up" she snapped and began to tie it up. She stormed away into the dining hall.

"Thank you, Alucard" said Walter. "I have to say, this affair has gotten to me too. I haven't felt this stressed out in quite some time. Yet I have no idea why."

"Hmm…" said Alucard. "Maybe you haven't got it the way you used to?" he suggested innocently.

Walter's eyes flashed. "Nonsense! I---" what Walter was going to say was lost, because the sound of a car pulling up in the driveway could be heard. "Oh, damn" Walter muttered and hurried off. Alucard began to fade away. Soon only his teeth remained, fixed in a grin.

"This promises to be an interesting night" he said.

* * *

Walter went into the main hall and looked outside the door. A white limousine was pulled in the driveway. As he watched, the driver helped a large man with a brown beard out, dressed in a black suit. He bore an interesting resemblance to the late Arthur Hellsing, except that he was a bit taller and wider. He also did not have the same sparkle of laughter in his brown eyes as Arthur. His ice blue eyes were as cold as death. A woman in a green dress out next. She had black hair that was bound in a braid. She wore high heels and had many rings on her hands. She looked a bit friendlier than her husband, but she radiated the same coldness. The last one the driver helped out was a seventeen year old girl.

Walter's jaw dropped in surprise and no small amount of horror.

The girl was dressed in a white tank top that had been rolled up so that a large portion of her midriff could be seen. She wore sagging camouflage pants and ADIOS shoes. Her wrists were clad in many spiked bracelets. Her brown hair flowed down her back.

"What in the name of God?" Walter asked. This girl looked like she had escaped from the poorer sections of London. What was she doing with the Dennis family, the American diplomats knowledgeable about vampires? Nevertheless, a butler's duty is to serve, and Walter repeated this over in his head as he prepared to answer the door. He opened it and Parley Dennis shook his hand. "Why hello, Sir Hellsing! I am Parley Dennis and this is my wife Andréa. This girl" he said, gesturing to the odd looking young woman "is my daughter Jayden." The way he said daughter, he might have said "curse".

"Well, I am pleased to make your acquaintance" said Walter. "But, I am not Sir Hellsing. My name is Walter Dornez and I am the Hellsing family butler. Sir Hellsing awaits you in the dining area."

Parley jumped as if he had been shocked. "Oh…I am…I am sorry" he said.

"Do not worry about it" said Walter.

Andrea laughed. "Parley and I are just getting used to this new way of British living."

"Yes, I suppose it does take a little bit of getting used to" said Walter.

"This place is _huge_" said the girl called Jayden. "I mean, wow. Nothing like my friends in America lived in. There _really _is a big class division in Britain."

"Jayden! Be polite, or you will sit this meal out!" said her Mrs. Dennis, tossing her black hair. Andrea pointed to a bench in the grand hall. "Sit on _that_ until we call you, and you can keep a smart comment back in your mouth." She turned away from her daughter. Walter saw Jayden flip her mother the finger as they walked into the dining hall.

"Greetings, Mr. Dennis" said Sir Hellsing as she approached them. She extended her hand.

Parley Dennis smiled as he gripped her hand…but the smile did not reach his cold eyes. "It is good to talk to you, Sir Integra Hellsing. I'm afraid I mistook your butler for you!"

"Oh, is that so?" Integra asked.

"You being a woman and all…" Mr. Dennis continued. "But enough of my male chauvinist ways!" he pointed to Andrea. "This is my wife, Andrea Dennis and…our daughter Jayden is…" he stopped. Andrea stepped forward.

"I apologize for the way Jayden is dressed" she said. "We have always had a very hard time trying to control what she does. She only dresses in _normal_ clothes when she goes to school and has to wear a uniform. She absolutely refused to change her clothes for the dinner tonight and she put up such a fight that we---"

"Quite alright" said Integra, wondering what kind of clothes Jayden was wearing.

Parley called, "Jayden! Get in here now, and stop sulking. You mother said to come in when you don't have anymore smart comments! I say that time is now!"

"It seems that it's not all a rosy family" said Alucard as he phased through the wall behind Andrea. She screamed as the black suited figure appeared out of nowhere.

"A…a _vampire?!" _she said. "But Hellsing…this…what is…"

Alucard grinned at their discomfort. "The problem is that no one expects another vampire to be working with the humans, Mrs. Dennis. That is why I am among them."

"I see" said Mr. Dennis. "Ingenious, Sir Hellsing! I applaud your ancestor's brains. I always used guns and other kinds of blessed ammo. Is that what you all do as well?"

"Yes" said Integra, sitting down at the table. She motioned to Seras to introduce herself. "This is Seras Victoria, a member of our Special Forces. She is another vampire…although I admit she doesn't look like it."

"Nice to meet all of you" said Seras, sitting down at the table as well. She and Alucard took their seats and the Dennis family did as well.

"Did I miss anything?" asked a voice from the doorway as Jayden walked in. It was only the years of training that kept Integra's mouth from opening in surprise at what the teenager was wearing.

"No…" she said. "Welcome, Ms. Jayden" said Integra. "Your parents were just introducing themselves. This is Alucard and Seras Victoria."

Alucard looked at Jayden---and stiffened. He smelled it…the scent he had smelled in the sewer. It was the scent of the child killer. But how was that possible, he asked himself. That was ludicrous. Maybe some weird perfume that was almost alike…no. His vampire nose was discerning and could tell more than a thousand individual scents. But what in Hell was going on? She couldn't be the child killer. Nevertheless, he would speak about this to Integra after this was over.

"It is nice to meet you, Jayden" Alucard said as he shook her hand.

"Nice to meet you too, Alucard" Jayden said as she sat down as well. "So, did my parents tell you what a bad job we do of vampire hunting?"

Andrea blushed and Parley clenched his fists under the table. Integra could see him counting to ten. She mentally thanked God that she did not have a daughter like this. Although, Alucard came pretty close. Her thoughts were interrupted when Walter came in with the dinner. "And dinner is served" said the butler. The dinner looked wonderful: Toad in the Hole (sausages covered in batter and roasted) and roast chicken. Assortments of vegetables were being served on the side. There were blood sausages for Seras and Alucard. Integra had already told her servant and his fledgling that she would not tolerate them guzzling blood bags while company was around.

"Well" said Parley. "We came to the U.K. three weeks ago. See, I'm a diplomat for the U.S. and I have to go where they send me you know" he laughed. "But this is a nice country. A bit on the rainy side, but otherwise okay."

_Children have been dying for three weeks_ Alucard thought.

"As we were somewhat amateur vampire hunters when we lived in America, we thought to get the expertise of a family who has been doing it for centuries" said Andrea.

"How did you come to be in the business of hunting vampires?" Integra asked.

"My father was killed by one" said Parley. He died in the hospital the day that Jayden was born. He was in the waiting room, and a vampire dressed like a doctor killed him. He was…brutally mauled." Parley shuddered and Andrea put a hand on his shoulder. "Anyway, that was when I dedicated myself to hunting and killing bloodsuckers---not meaning any offense to you, Sir Alucard, or you Ms. Victoria" he said.

"So, he makes us learn all about vampires" said Jayden. "He made me learn every trick in the book about killing them and their weaknesses." She sipped her tea casually—and dropped by accident. In her haste to catch it before it spilled on the good tablecloth, the burning hot liquid landed on the back of her hand. Jayden hissed in pain and seemed to be on verge of uttering a curse, when she caught her mother's eye. "Owww…"  
she said instead. "Jeez, it hurts." The back of her hand was already beginning to turn red and small blisters were forming.

"Walter, could you get something for Ms. Jayden's hand" Integra called. "You seem to have burned it quite badly" she said, "but that was alright. You really didn't have to do that."

"Oh, it's fine, Sir Hellsing" said Jayden. She put her hand under the table as if to hide it.

"We have been unsuccessfully hunting vampires for the past seventeen years. We have managed to kill some…but their numbers are overwhelming and it is very discouraging" said Parley.

_Welcome to our world_ Integra thought, but she held her tongue. That was a very nasty thing to say, and she knew she didn't mean it. Still, she was just tired. "Currently, vampire attacks are in remission in Britain, so you won't have to worry much about _that_. However, something else seems to…" she stopped, unsure of how to continue.

"Have you heard of those attacks on children?" asked Seras.

"Why yes, we have" said Andrea. "Terrible really. And none of them is really over eighteen. Terrible."

Integra sighed. "Well, we know what has been doing it. Or rather, we know that whatever has been committing this atrocities is not a human being."

Did Jayden stiffen when Integra said "We know what's been doing it"? Alucard wondered. He thought she did.

"Well, that's terrible" said Parley. "You know that it is a vampire?"

"This is no vampire" Integra said. "Whatever it is…" she stopped. "Whatever it is, it is more resourceful than a vampire, and it is has other abilities."

The doors opened and Walter appeared with a jar of water, and a soaked rag for Jayden's hand. "Here, Ms. Dennis" Walter said kindly. "No need for you to suffer that way."

"Oh, it's fine, I'm serious" Jayden said. She held up her burned hand. Integra blinked. Where there had been blistered, red skin before, there was a merely a mild redness and swelling at the spot, a minor, irritating burn.

"Well then" said Walter. "I'm sure that there's no need for me." He gave Integra a questioning glance.

"Well, I do hate to eat and run" said Parley, but I have a meeting tomorrow and I want to get an early start."

"Of course" said Integra. She found herself liking the amateur vampire hunter.

* * *

The Dennis family left, and Integra watched them go. She thought about what had happened at the table. "How did she do that?" Integra thought. That was the quickest healing she had ever seen. How did Jayden…but it wasn't her concern.

She felt Alucard's presence before she saw him with her physical eyes.

"What is it, Servant?" she asked.

"My Master" Alucard said with a grin. "I would like permission to follow the Dennis family home."

"Now why would you do a thing like that?" Integra demanded. "What are you saying?"

"I think…that we have found our murderer."


	9. No Life Spy

**No Life Spy **

"You _what?!" _Integra thundered. She looked at her servant as if he had gone mad. "Alucard, have you lost your _mind? _There is no way in this world that that little _tart_ is the beast that has been killing children all across London."

"I wouldn't be so hasty, my Master" Alucard said. He sat down in one of the chairs next to the desk. "When she came near, I sensed the same scent that I smelled in the sewer. It was far fainter, but still distinct."

Integra still shook her head. "I don't want to offend the Dennis family. Are you absolutely sure that she is the one? What _proof_ do we have?"

"Have you forgotten the burn?" Alucard countered. "She healed far too quickly for a mere human. That has to warrant some kind of supernatural powers."

"Perhaps she's a regenerator, like that Anderson" Integra sighed. "Anyway, I couldn't care less about the supposed supernatural abilities of a girl who does not even know how to dress properly."

"I could" Alucard said. He grinned and his eyes flared red for a moment. "A deal, perhaps, my Master Integra? If I can taste even a drop of her blood…whatever that girl is up to will be _engraved_ on my brain forever."

Integra sat down. "No" she said. "I will not allow it." She looked at the No Life King. "What has gotten _into_ you, Alucard? I wouldn't think that such a refined vampire like you would be lusting after a girl's blood…especially one you barely know."

"I agree, if this were any other circumstances besides these" Alucard said. "I need to find out what she is doing, in order to finish this monster once and for all."

Integra sighed. "Very well, Servant. But I will expect a _full_ report once you get back. A _written_ report, is that clear?"

Alucard's face as he disappeared was one of abject misery. The No Life King hated to draw up written reports.

* * *

Alucard followed in spirit form along the roads and streets of London. He followed the scent of the child killer. As he drifted, unseen by mortals, he began to pick up scents of dead children and the killer. The murderer had left a lot more victims than had been documented by Scotland Yard. This had to end. Alucard felt rage and disgust for this enemy rising in his chest---unfamiliar, human emotions. He tracked the scent to Wembly, a wealthy suburb. Alucard flew over the gates and into the large house. It was almost as large as Hellsing Manor, with large white facades and pillars. A large pool was in the back. Alucard flew past a maid as she was cleaning a vase. The woman shuddered, convinced that someone had walked over her grave. Alucard floated into Jayden's room and onto the bed. There was no one in the room now, but she would come soon. And then, they would have a little meal together. Then he thought better of it. He would observe her and find out what she was like alone, when her parents and friends weren't around. It was possible, he mused, that some kind of creature could have killed her and taken her skin…that was always a possibility. He looked around the room, decorated with posters of various bands, Panic! At the Disco, Fallout Boy, and many others. He looked at the large oak desk with a skull paperweight. The No Life King laughed suddenly, at the same time bringing out both the Casull and the Jackal. "So you thought you could hide from us by disguising your scent" he said. "Little girl, you have a lot to learn about the ways of the night." 

Jayden Dennis walked into her room and kicked off her shoes. She was tired and hungry. The pathetic dinner at Hellsing Manor did nothing to soothe the ravaging lust for pure fear that she fed on. _Maybe I should go hunting_ she thought…and then decided against it. When she had lived in Washington, several children had gone missing in her neighborhood. Jayden had devoured them of course, and hidden the bodies. They were never found, but the police outpouring was immense. She decided then that she would never kill where she lived. It was too uncomfortable. Jayden tensed suddenly, as she felt a cold wind chill her body. Her arms rose in goose bumps. "Who's here?" she asked. Her parents were long asleep, and the cleaning staff had most likely finished up and gone home. She looked around, but saw no one. _Probably just a chill_ she thought. Then her head snapped up. She _knew_ there was someone in the room with her. But she could not put her finger on it. They were _hiding_ somehow…in a way she had never even heard of. She stripped off her tank top and Alucard whistled. Not at her body, but at the amazing tattoo she had. Wrapped around Jayden's back and looping around her torso were bands of brightest indigo. They formed a kind of diamond in the back before meeting with stands of silver and gold. They met on her stomach. Jayden had another tattoo on the back of her neck of a smiling purple monkey, but Alucard was sure that this had nothing to do with this one. This one was…abstract and strange. Just looking at it gave him chills. And he was a vampire. It was hard to scare him. Jayden took off her pants and put on a nightgown, and went into the bathroom. He could hear her whistling as she brushed her teeth---then she stopped. Moving closer, Alucard looked into the bathroom. Jayden was leaning above the sink. The tattoo on her back was glowing with a strange, pallid light that made him think of swamp fire. It was _crawling_. Its ink flowed over Jayden's skin…leaving orange scales in its place. Alucard saw the smile on the purple monkey's face become a rictus of horror as it was flowed over by the strange tattoo's ink. Alucard began to tremble with excitement…and a little fear. He had never seen _anything_ like this before, not in his years as a vampire, and _definitely_ not in his years as a human. This was something else…something _alien_. Then, it began to recede, like a tide. Jayden's skin reverted back to normal as she sighed and turned away from the sink. "No hunting tonight" she muttered and walked back to the bed, her bare feet shuffling on the carpet. She turned off the lights and climbed into bed. Alucard waited a while, until her heard Jayden's breathing become deep and even. Alucard stood over her. He brought out the Jackal and held the black gun over her head. His finer hesitated on the trigger…and then relaxed. Integra had ordered him to _observe_, not _search and destroy. _There would be plenty of time for that later. Alucard planted a light kiss on her forehead as she slept. "Goodnight, my little murderer" he said as he departed the house. "Now" he said as he sailed through the air on the wings of the night, "I have the proof you were looking for, Integra."


	10. Nightfall

**Nightfall **

**Sakar Building, Chicago U.S.A 12:23 A.M Saturday night. **

Gray Rogan looked across from him at the multitude of men in suits that looked at each other from across the long wooden table. The room had no windows, and although it was a safety precaution from the sun, he wished they did. It was getting stuffy in here and he didn't need to breathe. That said something about the atmosphere. But, then again, none of the other people in the room needed to breathe, and they worked here everyday so perhaps they were used to it.

"I trust that you have an explanation for letting the creature get away?" asked Enrico Blazak. He was a stern, gray haired man who appeared to be in his late fifties, though he was closer to four hundred years old, give or take a few centuries. His pallid hands crossed themselves as he glared his black gaze at Gray. "The demon was supposed to be sealed in a cave in northern Uganda! We ordered you to get it to us intact! Not allow it to fall into the hands of a civilian, and worse a teenager! Now the girl has left for Britain and we have lost our leading edge!"

"Calm yourself, Enrico" said another man in his late seventies. Arthur Cavel sipped from a glass of blood. "Let Gray explain himself. He has never failed Nightfall before…and I trust that he won't this time." Gray didn't miss the thinly veiled threat in the speech, but chose to ignore it. He cleared his throat, sensing that this was his time to speak.

"Ahem" said Gray, causing everyone to look at him. He was a contrast from his surroundings. While the six men, and one woman at the head of the table were dressed in business suits, he was dressed in a long, untucked white shirt. A red scarf hung around his neck and trailed to his back. His long black hair grew long over one side of his face, hiding one eye. Wrapped around his hair was a red bandanna with pineapples and other fruits on it. His other eye, a brilliant blue looked sharp and alert. He had worn his best jeans to the meeting, but it still didn't give him the edge he wanted among these sharply dressed vampires. He took a sip from his own glass of blood, sighing in satisfaction as the warm liquid soothed his dry throat. "You're right. I did fail to get the demon from Uganda. By the time my team made it there, due to illness and food shortages, we were too late and it had found a host. The human limitations of the crew made it hard…and my own inability to travel in the daylight." He got up and began to walk around the conference room. "But, I see this in a different manner than some of you. I see this as a new opportunity to scout out a new territory: The British Empire. My team has tracked the movements of Jayden Dennis and her family. They're small time vampire hunters. I know _exactly_ what they would do if they moved to merry old England: connect with the Hellsing family. So (with your permission, everyone) I'm going on a little trip there. I'll have the demon back before you can say 'Gray blew it!' And then…" his blue eye sparkled. "You can return to your master plan…Lady Mina."

"I think Gray has an idea" said the woman in a white dress who was sitting at the head of the table. Her head lay in shadow, only her mouth could be seen. "I agree." Her red mouth moved in a smile. "I have faith in you, Gray Rogan. I expect the creature to be delivered promptly. _If_ you encounter the Hellsing Agency…avoid them. The super vampire Alucard is too strong for you. All you will accomplish is your own death. Is that clear?"

Gray bowed his head. "Yes, Lady Mina" he said.

"That is all, Gray. You are dismissed." She waved a fine boned hand and bid him go. Gray left the room, smiling to himself. "Yes, Mina Harker" he said to himself. "Just let me go…just watch your back in the process."

* * *

**Ahh….and **_**this**_** is where the story deviates from the manga. I thought about putting Millennium in this…but they're just too played out. I decided to put a vampire organization in this to be the villains. **


	11. The Horror at Dennis Manor

**The Horror at Dennis Manor**

**Warning! If you get sick easily then do not read this chapter. I am serious about this (although I assume you've watched Hellsing, so that means you have some resistance to blood and violence) that is all. IF you read this, you'll see what I'm talking about.**

* * *

**Sunday morning 10:12 A.M. Hellsing Manor U.K. **

Integra reached for another bottle of Advil pills. "Tell me again what you saw" she said to Alucard. "This time in words."

Alucard explained again what he had seen at Jayden's house, what she had almost become. Integra sighed and breathed out a cloud of cigar smoke. She then ran a hand through her hair. "Alucard" she said, her blue eyes leveled on his red ones. "If this proves to be true, you do know what you must do, don't you?"

"Of course. It's only natural."

Integra's eyes narrowed. "However, if we _do_ carry out our operation, and this proves to be false, then I will revert you back to your corpse state, and have you sealed in a steel bunker at the bottom of the English Channel---_after _filling your head with silver blessed rounds!"

"Such venom, Master" said Alucard with a Cheshire Cat grin. "I am only the humble servant bringing the message to you. There's no need to get _too_ angry. After all, it's only another monster."

"This is not another monster, and you know it Alucard. You said so yourself that you felt power in this one. And that tattoo…this all gives me a bad feeling." She stood up. "That is it. I'm going to pay a little visit to the Dennis manor myself and find out what on God's green Earth is going on here. This isn't like anything we've ever encountered before. It isn't a vampire, werewolf or anything you could put into words…"

"But Master" Alucard said, and Integra could tell he was a little worried. "That is a monster's den. It would be better to have a backup waiting for you, wouldn't it?"

"Seras!" Integra called on the intercom that led from her office. "I want you to report to the office as soon as possible!"

A few minutes later, Seras had been briefed on what was to happen. Integra would go pay a visit, pretending to want to discuss some obscure fact of vampire hunting. Seras meanwhile would sneak around the house. She was to use non lethal force to quietly and quickly subdue anyone who got in the way. She was NOT to confront Jayden. She was to spy, to report what was happening in the house. Integra would then approach the subject and find out what their daughter was…and more importantly, did they know about it. Integra suspected that they were unaware of what their daughter was doing to children in London…but on the off chance that they _were_ aware, she had packed her sword and two nine millimeter guns in twin shoulder holsters.

"Should I take the Harkonen cannon?" Seras asked. "It might look kind of…well, _big." _

Integra nodded. "Of course. I want you to take a can of mace spray. _I _will have the guns. And _I_ will be doing the killing if there is a confrontation with either Jayden's parents, or Jayden herself." _And let us hope that neither one happens_ Integra thought, thinking about the thing in the drain at the Blake house. She brushed that thought aside and walked past Alucard.

"Don't worry, Master" said Seras. "Sir Integra is in good hands. I won't let anything happen to her."

"I hope not" Alucard said after they had both left.

* * *

Integra and Seras both looked at the Dennis mansion as Walter pulled the car up to Wembly. "Should I stay parked here, my lady?" Walter asked. "This seems to be a dangerous undertaking." 

"No" said Integra. "Whatever this thing is, it seems to only attack at night. It came in the daytime that once with the Blake boy…but that was all. Plus, _if_ Jayden is the monster, I don't think she'll reveal her true form in her own house among her parents."

"I've got the spray, Sir Integra" said Seras. She was dressed in a long hooded sweatshirt and big flannel pants with high boots. She looked extremely strange, but Seras was sensitive to sunlight, and while she wouldn't burn (none of Alucard's fledglings would) she would still have a nasty sunburn if she wasn't careful. The girl _reeked _of the sun block she had smeared on her exposed face and hands. It stank up the car.

Integra walked up to the mansion gates. They were unlocked and seemed to be open. She pushed them open with her hands. "What is it, Sir?" asked Seras nervously. Her vampire senses weren't nearly as sharp as Alucard's and she was afraid that she had missed something. She looked around. The mansion grounds were kept marvelously clean by an army of gardeners. The stone path which they were walking up to the main house was well cared for and polished. Their shoes clacked on it. The trees were silent. The entire mansion and its grounds were silent. Not a person could be seen. The air was heavy and still.

"Be careful, Seras" Integra said, drawing her rapier. It was a silver blade that had been blessed in holy water at a Lancaster cathedral. It was the one weapon Integra could not conceal however, so she used it very sparingly. However, that did not mean she did not practice for several hours daily. "Something isn't right here. I can feel it."

"Where's the limo?" Seras asked, holding the can in front of her like a gun. "Shouldn't it be parked here?"

"It's obviously in the garage" Integra snapped. "That's not what I mean. What I mean is that it's too quiet. We should hear people; _see_ people doing their daily tasks. I know this is Sunday, but still…"

"Maybe we should have a change of plan" said Seras. "They're obviously in church."

Integra slapped her head. Of _course _they were in church. She herself would be in church if they did not have a case to be working on right now. "We should leave" Integra said. But her feet didn't seem to be listening to her brain right now, and seemed to be putting up a revolution. "Seras" Integra said, as the revolution spread to her mouth. "Go around to the front of the house…I'm going to try and see if we can break into the basement. I'll pick the lock on one of the windows down there…you get the front door. With your strength….it should be no difficulty." Integra didn't know why she was saying these things…it was as if some other force had taken control of her mouth and was telling her to say these things. The weird part was that she _agreed_ with these ideas. They made perfect sense and they were things she would do in any other circumstance than this. If this was a house where a suspected FREAK lived, then she'd be the first to break down the door, but this wasn't a vampire…Too late. Her feet were already taking her to the basement area of the mansion. The mansion had a high overhang to shield the basement level windows from the glaring sun. This area had become overgrown with vines and Integra had to duck and crawl through the leafy corridor. She finally was forced to leave her sword behind. The leaves and plant vines under here were wet with dew that had not evaporated in the shade and she was soon soaked. Integra made her way forward, regardless. Soon she began to encounter things that let her know she was close to the window. And old sneaker, a few beer cans, chip bags…it looked like Jayden had invited more than one friend over and they had been drinking without her parents permission. Probably more punks like her Integra thought. Old newspaper rustled against her suit legs as she made her way in even deeper. This was getting weird, she thought incoherently. _Yes, weird is right. There is _no way_ that it should take this long to get to a few basement windows. Seras is probably already inside the house. Besides…_ She began to notice other things to---like the noise. Before, when she had first started going in, she had heard the traffic outside on the road…now there was utter silence. Not the silence of a small crawl space under a house…it was a leafy, forest like silence. _Perhaps I should have brought Alucard after all _she thought with a bit of fear. It was also getting darker inside, the light from outside seeming to get further and further away. Inside this blackish green darkness, Integra could see nothing except the walls of vines which held her caged in. She wanted to turn back, to tell Seras that this was a stupid idea in the first place, to run back to the car, back to Hellsing Manor. But she couldn't. She felt _pushed. _Someone…or something wanted her to go forward. Finally, she saw the windows to the basement. They were lined up against the foundation of the house. A dirty statue of the cupid stared at her, buried in the dirt. Integra blinked as she saw the cupid's smiling face become a dirt caked snarl of rage. When she blinked it was back to the way it was. _Oh, but no, I saw that, I _did _see it change. _The suspicions she had about Jayden Dennis being innocent were all gone by now. Integra chose the window in the middle. The lock on that window had corroded here in the dark and damp and it was easy to pry. She grabbed the twist of metal that was left and began to pry it up with a grunt. The spotted, dirty glass began to slide up with her efforts.

When the face appeared, Integra was horrified, but not _surprised_. Hadn't she _known_, in some deep, instinctive way, _known_ that something like this would happen?

The face appeared in the window that she had opened in the basement. When it appeared, Integra's blue eyes bulged behind her glasses. Her breath left her body in a soundless scream and she felt sweat break out all over her body. Her Uncle Richard's face had appeared in the window. But this did not resemble the Richard that she had known and loathed. There were changes. Terrible changes. The left side of the top of Richard's head was gone, where she had blown it off from behind Alucard's arm. A mass of spongy brownish black tissue had replaced it. The eyes were a bright blue, the same color as hers. His left cheek sagged in a maggoty ruin. He had no right cheek; she could see his yellow, exposed teeth and moldy tongue. His upper body followed quickly as he poked his horrible head out of the opening. His long hands and fingers were covered with running sores. Beetles crawled all over his body and a fly buzzed lazily about his head. Richard was wearing the ragged, vermin infested remains of his suit and trench coat that he had been wearing when he chased her down into the basement. "I should have been the family head" he said to Integra. "But that's alright Integra, I forgive you" he croaked, and Integra saw with a kind of dreamy horror that he was indeed crawling out of the window. She could hear his dead flesh making wet gushing sounds as he squeezed in the narrow space. "You'll like it here with me" he said. "Some of those children are here with me." The Richard-thing reached toward her, and in some part of her screaming mind, Integra knew that if its hands touched her, it would paralyze her. She suddenly knew that it meant to take her to the basement depths with it. To eat her there. That was enough to send her crawling backwards on her hands and knees, gulping and gasping in terror. She lunged toward the light at the end of the leafy tunnel. Once again she felt pushed, except this time whatever was using her was trying to get her out of there. She broke through the vines, the thorns causing cuts on her face which she barely felt. She lay there for a minute, gasping. Then, the Hellsing coldness reasserted itself. What was she running away for? She had forgotten the guns she carried with her in her pockets! Integra got up and brushed herself off, frowning at the grass stains on her suit and the leaves in her hair. She stuck a cigar in her mouth, but did not light it. She couldn't make herself go back in there, but if the monster came out…she interrupted her own thoughts with a shriek of fear as the rotting hands of Richard flew out of the bushes, ripping at them, tearing and pulling with mindless rage. The cigar fell from Integra's numb lips. The Richard-thing crawled out of the bushes with more grace than the average ghoul. It staggered to its feet.

"Family head" it said, with an awful decaying smile. It began to stagger toward her. "It doesn't hurt to die, Integra…" it said. "I should know…after all you KILLED me…"

"G-get back, you evil spawn of Satan" Integra said, stepping away. She drew one of the guns and aimed it at him.

"There's no Seras to save you this time" Richard said. He stuck out his tongue at Integra and she screamed. His black and shiny tongue was over four feet long and came to a double point like a snake's. Gray green foam splashed from its ends onto the grass.

Integra gave a wild yell and began to bolt to the gates. Seras stood in front of her.

"Sir Integra, I couldn't---" she broke off in a yell as she saw Integra's gray, sweating face. "What's going---"

Blind raving terror leant Integral Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing super strength that rivaled a vampire's that day. She grabbed the unfortunate Police Girl and hurled her over her shoulder. Integra leaped over a wheelbarrow that a careless gardener had left and kept running. She finally collapsed to the ground spent. She fell facedown on top of Seras and began to weep, any moment expecting the rotting hands of her uncle to turn her over and…and…well, she didn't know, but it would certainly be unspeakable. But when she finally summoned up the courage to look, she saw nothing. Nothing of the thing that had been following them. Except for one thing. Near them, under a tree…was a black and white cap, the words Hot Topic written on it.

"Are you alright, Sir Integra?" asked Seras quietly, knowing she wasn't.

"I think we'd better go home, Seras" Integra said. "I...I will send someone to do this. I don't know what I was...what I was thinking when I decided to go ahead with this." She looked around. "Let's go before someone calls the police from hearing those screams."

"Do you..." Seras hesitated. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked, remembering Sir Hellsing's last encounter with the demon.

"Yes, Seras...I think I do. If you'll listen."

The Police Girl nodded. "Sure thing, Sir Integra. I'll listen as long as it takes."

* * *

**Yes, I know, this isn't very Integra Hellsingish. Buuuuutttttt, she was just scared out of at least forty years of her life by the beast. So give me a break. I also wanted this gruesome chapter to have a sort of cuddly ending. **


	12. Plotting a Strategy

**Plotting a Strategy **

**Sunday Afternoon, 1:02 P.M. Hellsing Manor **

"Dear God" said Walter as they Integra shuddering told him of what had happened at the Dennis mansion. Integra then broke down in a fit of tears. Walter sighed sadly and put his arms around her.

"There, there" he said. "You're safe now, my lady." He had not seen her cry in all the years that she had taken over the Hellsing Agency, not even during the time of Incognito. Now she was crying like a child.

"T-thank you Walter" said Integra. "I'm sorry." She blew her nose. "I've been acting a fool. We must prepare a strategy if we are to take the Dennis family on."

Walter's eyes widened. "Take on the Dennis family? My lady, perhaps you should lie down. The incident has upset you more than I suspected."

Integra shook her head. "I know what I'm doing. From what Seras has told me, I'm almost positive that her parents are aware of Jayden's transformations. She says that she saw the limousine within the garage. Not only that, but the staff was not there at all! The Dennis's were in the living room, talking. Jayden was in her room…or someone was, because Seras could sense someone there. Then, as I suspected, she smelled Jayden in the basement. She came to tell me that there was no reason to break in…and I found her, and…" Integra shook her head. The moments when she and Seras had fled the monster lurking in that house were still hazy---and she secretly hoped they would stay that way. "I have spoken. Tell Captain Bernadette that he and his men will soon have to invade a house." She got up, her face in shadows penetrated only by the white circles of her glasses (in the manga, she is quite good at these faces) and smiled grimly. "I will _not_ involve the Round Table Knights in this."

"I should think not!" said Walter, for the first time actually agitated. He paced up and down in front of the desk. "Lady Integra, think of the consequences! These are _American diplomats! _We can't imagine the repercussions this will have upon the Agency!"

"I know" said Integra. "But I will not allow this to go on any longer. I will have answers from Parley and Andrea Dennis, or I will have their heads!" she slammed her fist on the table. She was still dressed in her grass stained suit and her hair was wild and full of leaves. She looked crazy. Walter sighed prepared to leave.

"Is there anything I can get you, Lady Integra?" he asked.

"Peace of mind, Walter. Have you seen any floating around?"

"I'll see what I can do" said Walter with a small smile.

After Walter left, Integra sat at her desk, staring at the papers muddled there. She couldn't get any work done, she knew. She picked a piece of paper up and started to write.

_You'll like it here. Some of the children are down here with me. _

Integra let the paper fall to the floor. What was going _on? _Why was this happening to her? That did it. She wasn't going to deal with this crap today. Bugger the Queen and Britain and the Roundtable Knights anyway. She was going to bed, afternoon or no.

* * *

"What in the name of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were you _thinking_, you little whore?!" snarled Parley Dennis.

"Parley!" snapped Andrea. "Apologize to her. She's done nothing wrong, it's just expressing her power."

_"Nothing wrong?" _Parley demanded. They were all sitting in the living room. The serving staff had been dismissed for the day. He had been ranting and yelling since sunset this morning at Andrea, and then after Jayden had come in from chasing that nosy bitch Integra Hellsing off the property, he had yelled at her too. "Jayden feeds on _children!_ She's all over the newspapers!" she said, rattling a copy of the _London Times_ in her face. "This has got to stop! If only we'd never gone to Uganda, then this wouldn't have---"

"No use crying over spilled milk" said Andrea. "That's what my mother used to say. Besides," she looked at Jayden, who was lying on the couch with a hat pulled over her face "It's not like Hellsing can hurt her or anything. They don't even know what they're up against. They're only good for vampire hunting."

"This is exactly why we need them!" Parley yelled. "Do you think that Mina Harker and her Nightfall will just sit by and let us live when they have what must be the greatest clue they've found yet? Their pet scientists and metaphysicians would kill their mothers for what Jayden has engraved on her skin! We need the Hellsing Agency on _our_ side!"

"Look, Dad" said Jayden, speaking for the first time. "It's not as if they'll follow us over the ocean to Britain. We lost Gray Rogan in the airport in Thailand. He's an idiot and he'll just make some excuse and get away with it. They'll forget about us with the next feeding. They probably have already. It's been three years since I got the tattoo and nothing's happened."

Parley shook his head and poured a glass of white wine down his throat. "You don't get it" he said. "Jayden you are young and arrogant. I love you, you're my daughter but there are some days when I wish you had never been born." He shook his head. "Gray Rogan will keep coming after us, as long as his masters wish for it. And that will be forever. And there is an added reason I don't want to run: that bastard killed my father, _your_ grandfather who you never got to meet because of him! I want that bastard dead."

"By using me?" Jayden asked. She rolled her blue eyes. "Great job Dad. Very brave."

"Jayden, stop it" said Andrea. "Can't you just accept what's going on? I'm beginning to think that the Argus tattoo is beginning to affect your mind!" she yelled. "There, it's out. I don't have to hide my pent up feelings anymore."

"I'm still me" said Jayden. "Why didn't we ask Integra Hellsing for help at the dinner? Dad, you said you wanted to do it."

"The time wasn't right" said Parley. "I didn't know how she would react if she heard…our secret."

"We have to call, Otto Kramer" said Andrea. "He'll know what to do!"

"No!" said Parley. "We will not call Otto. I do not want to but him in anymore danger from Nightfall than he already is. The Nightfall vampires there have connections to almost every business and type of person in America. No, we will save Otto for later. Once we have taken care of Integral Hellsing!"


	13. Plan of a Traitor

**Plan of a Traitor **

**Sakar Building, Chicago U.S.A 7:59 P.M. Sunday night. **

Gray descended to the lowest level of the large skyscraper that was Nightfall's headquarters. He hummed the little tune he had discovered in the computerized records three years ago, when this entire thing began. When he arrived at the lowest level, he walked out, his Nike sneakers clacking on the hard green tiles of the floor. He continued toward a large room where a group of men and women awaited his direction. His team. Called the Gray Men, they were Nightfall's leading assassins and grunt people. Gray and his group accomplished the dirty jobs that Nightfall hid under its surface.

Presented to the world as a cutting edge pharmaceutical and biotechnology firm, the Nightfall Corporation was in actuality, a front for Mina Harker's plan to liberate the children of the night from the chains of human society. Nightfall had indeed produced many fine drugs, but their best achievement had to be the secretly manufactured "FREAK" chips that turned ordinary mortals into vampires without the annoying same sex or virginity clause. Grey had helped distribute these chips to people, mostly in slums and poor areas of the city. The tests would be carried out on people whom the world would not miss. The very first test results had been quite bad; the Gray Men had helped dispose of more than one writhing mass of mutated flesh, whose body had rejected the chip. But eventually, the small machines had become a roaring success. There were still a few problems, quality control was bad, and the chip "vampires" were much weaker than pureblooded ones, but it was all going to be worked out soon.

"So, did the suits yell at you?" asked another vampire in a Pink Floyd shirt and black jeans that was leaning against the wall of the hallway. She was listening to an iPod, her long brown hair tied in a ponytail. Michelle Rogan, Gray's younger sister walked up to him and prodded him in the chest. "They did, didn't they?" she demanded. "I _knew_ we should have followed the Dennis family! Why did we---"

"Calm down" said Gray with a smile. "I wasn't…_yelled_ at; it was more of a strict warning to make sure I got what we were looking for."

"Oh, I get it" said Michelle. While Michelle appeared to only be fifteen, and Gray appeared to be twenty seven, they were both much, much older. They had been turned by Mina Herself when she had passed through their small California town. Michelle was much shorter than Gray and had a sweet, innocent looking face which was covered in freckles. She had learned to smile in a certain way when she was talking to people to avoid showing her large vampiric teeth. She was so thin that Gray could count the tendons in the hand that was working the iPod's buttons.

"You need to drink more" he said. "I don't like the way you look these days, always so pale and skinny."

"Deal with it" Michelle said. "Anyway, we've been waiting for your directions for ages while you sat in that meeting…and then we all had to sleep so we didn't know when…"

Gray walked past her. "Michelle" he said.

"What is it?" Michelle asked.

"We're being allowed to go to Britain to pick up Parley Dennis' little whore of a daughter. Do you know what this means?"

Michelle rolled her eyes. "Oh no. Don't tell me that you're _still_ thinking about over throwing Mina?"

"I am" said Gray as they continued down the hall. "I have a large part of the power I'm looking for already: Mina Herself. I need the blood of one of Great Ones for my little project. And then…there's little Jayden and her amazing power." He smiled, revealing his fangs. "I wonder how Parley is going to react when he sees me again for the first time in seventeen years." He flipped back the hair grew over the left side of his face, revealing a horribly burned surface, the eye was an empty socket around which empty bone could be seen. "His little holy water attack still pains me, as you can see" he said.

"Don't worry" said Michelle. "We'll have the power before you know it."


	14. Ershadar

**Ershadar **

**Monday morning, 3:23 A.M. Hellsing Manor **

Young Integra Hellsing sat in front of her father in his large study. "What seems to be the trouble, Integra?" Arthur Hellsing asked from his desk. He lit a cigar and put it into his mouth and looked at her.

Young Integra adjusted her glasses nervously. "Well…Father…it's like this. See, there's this monster and I can't beat it! I just can't!" she cried. She felt tears on her face. "It's not a vampire and it can…can…"

Her father shook his head and got up from the desk. He looked outside at the sunlight streaming in through the windows. "Integra" he said. "What have you done to combat this being?"

"Well…we've…we've tried going in after it, I even went myself. I think it has connections to diplomats and…and…" she could feel herself beginning to trek down the long trail toward tears. But Arthur put a hand on her shoulder.

"Integra, sometimes the answer of how to defeat a difficult problem is right in front of us, but we cannot seem to grasp it."

Integra nodded. "I see what you're saying Father. But, _what_ can I do to stop this thing? It doesn't seem like…" she trailed off and looked at her father's face. "You…" she said in the voice of authority, the voice of her older self, "you are _not_ my father. Who are you?" Integra's dress transformed into the green suit she wore, her glasses shrunk and became less thick. Her hair lengthened and soon the fully grown Integral Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing was standing before her "father's" desk. "This is a _dream" _she said. "I went to bed in the afternoon and have been asleep since. I'm dreaming all this." She looked all around her. "Why am I even saying this?" she asked.

"It is a dream, Integra" said Arthur and sat back down at his desk. He pulled a cigar from thin air and lit it. "But you will _not _wake up from it…not until I have had my say, and pay very close attention, Integral Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, because what I have to say is more important than you can imagine."

Integra looked at her father coldly. "You are merely a dream element. I have control over my dreams and can wake whenever I want." _Except when Alucard enters uninvited_ she thought.

"Precisely. Alucard can manipulate your dreams whenever he wants to, correct."

"You read my mind!"

"Of course" her father said. He smiled and blew out a cloud of smoke. "It's not so bad Integra. I just need you to listen closely."

"You…" Integra felt a vague sensation of fear. "What are you?"

"A messenger" he said. "Now, let's begin so that you can wake up and run your agency." He gestured around him, and the room blew apart; they were seated on nothing. Then he clapped his hands and an environment appeared around them. They were seated at an old fashioned table---in the middle of a sunset sky. Integra could see golden cloud banks below them, touched with liquid fire from the sun. A tray of biscuits appeared on the table before them.

"Go ahead, take one" said the being that was pretending to be her father. "Unlike ordinary dreams, your sense of taste has been preserved."

"I am still in a limited amount of control of this farce?" Integra demanded coldly. "I can still create what I want?"

"Of course" said the Arthur Hellsing thing. "I wouldn't suppress your---" he got no farther because Integra made her silver blade appear and stabbed him through the heart with it.

"I don't take kindly to being held hostage in my own head" she snapped. "Now release me, and we stand a chance of getting some actual conversation accomplished."

Arthur sighed and tugged the sword out of his chest. "I should have expected that from you" he sighed. "Oh well, I'd say that negotiations have _officially _broken down, wouldn't you?" Without warning, Integra was thrown onto the surface of the sky. Clouds wrapped around her body, holding her in place. Arthur floated in front of her. "Now, Integra, I wouldn't have to do this if you would just behave. I---"

"Stop pretending to be my father!" Integra screamed. "I won't have his name and face mocked in my presence!"

The being looked down at himself. "Oh…I guess this _was_ a little insensitive. Still, I just wanted to comfort you." His form began to change, until it was a hooded figure, wrapped in a pale gray robe. The fabric was thin, and ragged at the edges. It floated around the being's ankles, even though there was no wind in this dream-world. He wore sandals and she could see that he had a long black beard. She could not, however, see his face.

"Are you…are you an angel?" Integra asked suddenly.

The face smiled. "No" he said. "Not quite an angel, but I've been working on it for the past millennium. You can call me JP right now."

"J…JP?" Integra asked. "For some kind of celestial messenger, it sounds…ordinary."

"Yes…but if I told you my real name, it would drive you insane."

Integra did not have any reason to doubt JP's words. "What did you want to tell me?" she asked.

JP scratched his thick beard. "Hmm…where to begin? The Big Man didn't exactly give me an instruction manual, so I have to kind of wing it." He spread his arms and the sky broke into the darkness of the outer cosmos. "In the beginning there was darkness. Then: **LET THERE BE LIGHT!!!" **he yelled in a voice that made Integra scream and cover her ears. But that did not good; the voice was in her head as well. Light exploded out of the darkest corners of the Great Darkness. It was blinding and so was the knowledge that it brought. Integra took her hands from her ear and put them on her eyes, but the merciless light slammed through her hands and closed lids.

"Then there was water" he said. Abruptly water began to fill the area below her. She could see massive, storm tossed seas crashing against walls of more water. "Then there was land and from the land, came the plants." Land appeared out of the water, red and glistening like blood. Clots of lava, and red hot rocks, some the size of Hellsing Manor, flew up in random places. Then, plants began to sprout, trees spread their branches to cover the world, giant ferns littered the ground. Grass grew in long sheaves, clothing the naked, molten flesh of the Earth with green cloth. JP and Integra landed on the grass. "I suppose you've read your Bible?" he asked. Then he smacked his hooded head. "Of course you have! If you hadn't, I wouldn't be giving this analogy." He pointed at the ground and a group of vines twisted together to form a bench. "Sit, sit" he said. "You look terrible." Integra sank into it without argument.

"My point, dear Sir Hellsing, is that this was not accomplished without a certain amount of power."

"Wh…what do you mean?" Integra asked. "We know…we know _God _created---"

"Ah, yes He _did_" said JP. "But, what I'm getting at is that he used a certain kind of power to pull it off."

"What…what _kind_ of power?" asked Integra.

"A power we like to call Ershadar" he said. "Of course, He's the source of it…but there are pockets of that stuff left here on Earth and throughout Creation. Anyway, this power obviously has the ability to create…and the ability to destroy."

"Are you telling me that Ershadar grants the powers of God to anyone who uses it?" Integra demanded, her mind tottering at the implications of this.

JP waved a hand. "No, no! That's not what I'm saying at all! What I'm _saying_ is that if someone gets the power, they gain _limited_ Godlike powers. Like powers to create whatever they want." He sighed and sat down on the ground. "A couple of eons ago, we planted a pocket of Ershadar in a cave in someplace you now call Uganda. Anyway, some people found it. The people were the Dennis family. Now, their daughter is using it to transform into whatever her victim fears the most..." He smiled and continued. "And that stupid organization thinks it's a demon tattoo…"

"_Who_ thinks it's a demon?" Integra demanded.

"Oh, no one you'll meet" he said. "Anyway, you've got to stop Jayden Dennis and get her to see that she can't keep using it."

"Why not?" Integra asked. "Why is she using it to kill children? What does the little bitch get from it besides sadistic pleasure?"

JP shrugged. "Got me there. When it gets to cosmological shit like this, I can't tell my ass from my head. I'm just a messenger boy."

Integra smacked her face with her hand.

* * *

Alucard was bored. He lay awake in his coffin, thinking about the raid they were going to carry out on the Dennis manor. He grinned wildly. Soon, he would face a worthy opponent. He couldn't wait. This was apparently _quite_ the monster if it could scare the stone hearted Integra. And speaking of Integra wasn't she overdue for some decent dream interface with her most beloved Servant? He changed into spirit form and traveled the pathways of the night. Alucard arrived in a place that was very much like the "Floo Powder" experience he had read about in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets." He was in night black space where the doors to the minds of Hellsing Manor's inhabitants sat. He was familiar with most of them. A polished mahogany door with a golden doorknob shaped like a hand was Walter's. The blue one and the only already open one was Police Girl's. A marble one, shaped like an ancient Greek temple door was Integra's. Grinning, Alucard went to the door and began to open it. All of them (with the exception of Seras') were locked, but learning to jimmy those locks was among the list of powers for a true No Life King. As he opened the door to Integra's mind however, he was picked up and hurled backwards by a powerful force. He skidded across the space. "What the fuck?" he asked in surprise. This had never happened before. Had Integra learned to shield her mind from him at last? He didn't think so. Something was up…but he couldn't say what it was. This was becoming a disturbing trend, he realized. He threw himself with all of his might at the doors, but still he was repelled. He went to draw the Cassul and Jackal, but then he remembered that they were physical weapons, and they wouldn't work here. Cursing, Alucard helplessly returned to the physical realm, outside of Walter's room. It was time to wake Integra up. Someone---or something---was holding the head of Hellsing hostage in her own head, the one prison from which there was no escape.

* * *

"You don't _know_?" Integra asked again. "This is unbelievable. Then what are you trying to tell me?"

"I'm saying" said JP, "that you must confront the Dennis family. Talk to Parley Dennis---and choke down your urge to shoot him because, yes, he _does_ know about his daughter's activities."

"I'll try" Integra said, feeling anger well deep within her. She made the police photos of the dead and mutilated children appear before her, floating in the air. "But I cannot forgive _this." _

The portion of JP's face she could see was serious. "I know" he said. "But try, please. Parley and Andrea Dennis will answer for their complicity in this whole thing when their Time comes. Believe that."

"I will" said Integra.

"Then, Integral Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, wake up" he said. "This is the last time you will see me…maybe we can hook up when I see you on the Other Side."

"As if I would" Integra said, and opened her eyes---

* * *

---at the same time Walter threw a bucket of freezing water on her.

"Ahhhggghhhh!" Integra screamed, sitting bolt upright in bed. Blearily she reached for her glasses and put them on. The nightstand clock read that it was 5:08 in the morning. "W…Walter, was that really necessary?" she said, trying to regain some of her lost dignity. When one is dripping wet, disoriented, and in a soggy nightgown, it is not an easy task.

"Are you, alright, Lady Integra?" Walter asked, ignoring what she said. Alucard hovered in the shadows of the room, saying nothing, his hat pulled over his face.

"I'm…fine…" said Integra. She was not surprised to feel that she was amazingly tired. Even more tired than when she had started off to bed. Seeing the whole of Creation made takes a lot out of a person. Still, she swung her legs over the bed, pushing her bare feet into slippers. "Walter!" she said.

"Yes, my lady" Walter responded.

"Wake the Geese" she said. "Alucard, tell Seras to pack the Harkonen cannon with her. We have a monster to slay."

**Sorry about the recent lack of updates---school's busy and stuff. Isn't it funny to think of Alucard the No Life King reading a Harry Potter novel? Hey, vampires have gotta read too! See ya later.**


	15. War

**War **

**Elsewhere, 5:53 A.M.**

The silver Lear jet landed at Heathrow airport, skidding along the runway and stopping. The crew began to disembark. They would not have to pass through security, nor would their cargo; the right officials had been bribed handsomely, and the private plane could pass unhampered.

"Careful with those!" yelled one of the workmen as he unloaded a coffin. American soil leaked out of the wooden box.

"Why are we unloading _coffins?" _asked the second workman. "What is this, an undertaker's convention? I thought this was from a pharmaceutical company called Nightfall?"

"It is" said one of the plane's crew shortly. "As for what we are doing with the coffins, that is none of your business. You superiors told you to merely unload them and place them in the truck…correct?"

"What's this one?" asked one of the men, gesturing at a black coffin with a strange crest upon its surface.

"Hey! Leave it!" said a voice from one of the coffins. To their horror, a man opened the box. Dirt fell from his clothes as he climbed out. "Phew! Been packed in that American dirt for so long, I have it in places I didn't even know I had!"

"Yes, _please_ don't touch my resting place" said Gray as he opened the lid of his crested coffin and struggled out. He flipped his hair up and brushed dirt out from his face.

"Ah…ah….ahhhhh!" screamed the workers as they ran away from the coffins. They lids had begun to rise. Wooden lids opened as the living dead struggled out of their safe resting places. There stood thirty two men and women, all dressed in various camouflage outfits and several wearing handkerchiefs over their heads. Some even had camouflage paint on their faces. They carried an assortment of army knives, AK-47s and grenades. Several had sniper rifles and Desert Eagle magnums. "Come back" Gray called to the workmen. "Can't we talk about this like reasonable human beings?"

"Get away from us, you…you monsters!" one of them screamed. The crew of the plane quickly bound the men's hands behind them, attacking them with martial arts moves that these people probably thought were limited to the movies.

"Please…" another workman said. "I have a wife…a wife and a family."

"Good" said Gray as he stood over the unfortunate man. "I _like _people who have families. They populate the planet with more cattle." He pulled the helpless man up by his hair. He screamed miserably. "I'll take you as a welcoming gift to this country." His eyes glowed red and he sank his fangs into his victim's neck. The man shrieked and writhed, trying even now to get away from the monster that was draining his life. But it was no use. The man fell to his knees and Gray followed him to the ground, his face enraptured as he finished his meal. The plane crew who had flown Gray and his undead team across the ocean in coffins filled with American soil, watched with a mixture of disgust and jealousy. They were vampire adherents; men who had been promised vampirism, by chip or by true immortal kiss, they weren't sure. With hoots of laughter the Gray Men attacked the remaining men. They did not feed as gracefully as their leader however, tearing anywhere they could get in a bite. It was thirty two vampires against sixteen workmen. Not a pretty sight.

* * *

A group of plain white vans approached the Dennis manor. There were about four of them. They were marked with various service companies and all had ladders and other equipment. If they were pulled over, police would find merely the things a work crew would use…they would not see the guns and ammunition stored in the glove compartments and inside lunchboxes. Pip Bernadette brandished a Desert Eagle. "For ze love of all that 'oly" he snapped to no one in particular. "I've 'eard of a siege war, but zhis is ridiculous." He along with his Wild Geese were dressed as a mixture of plumbers and workmen, complete with real sewage and paint stains. How Sir Hellsing had managed to get her hands upon such outfits on such short notice was something that the Frenchman didn't think he wanted to know. Some things are better left unsaid and all that.

"Captain Bernadette, are all your men alert and ready to go?" asked Integra's voice on a walkie talkie he had strapped to his belt. Integra was in the last van, making that vehicle the command center of this operation.

"Ready as we'll ever be" Pip muttered sourly. "Are you sure we won't get into some sort of national incident?" he asked. "Zheze people are freaking _diplomats _after all."

Integra's voice on the walkie talkie was grimly triumphant. "When this is over with, I will _personally _make sure that Parley Dennis is never in a position of state _ever _again."

"We're coming up on the manse boss" said one of the men. He flicked on the back lights to let the others know.

"I'm ready for action" said Seras, shifting Harkonnen to a more comfortable position.

"'Ey, girl" Pip asked. "Do you think you'll 'ave to use that big bloody thing?"

Seras thought about the dead children in the photos and police files. Her eyes flared red for a moment. "I hope so!" she said fiercely.

In the last van, Integra ground her teeth. Her gloves were soggy from the sweat from her palms. _Choke down your urge to shoot him _JP had said. Well, she would _try _. She wasn't perfect. She would make sure that he and his wife suffered for this, though. To think that they had been letting their monster of a daughter loose on the population of London's children. Her cell phone went off, and she tugged it from her suit pocket. "Yes?" she asked.

"Lady Integra, I have Sir Islands on the phone" Walter said. He sounded nervous. "What shall I tell him…should I make up…a lie?"

Integra thought for a minute, weighing her reputation and this current situation. She had already been slandered once, and her reputation was still tarnished from Incognito. Perhaps she should just quit it right here and now, tell them it was all a mistake…Then her eyes hardened. The Hellsing Agency had formed so that monsters would not prey upon the innocent unpunished. These depredations upon the children would _not_ go unpunished. "Tell him…" she said, "…tell Sir Islands that there is a grievous emergency at the Dennis manor. Tell him that they are being attacked by a group of unidentified assailants, much like our Valentine Brothers situation. Tell him to hurry, call Scotland Yard and MI-5 and have them here on the double."

Walter's shocked silence was clear through the phone. Integra bristled. "Walter, do I need to repeat myself? I want Scotland Yard, or better, MI-5 here, _on the double!" _

"But…my lady…if they find…if they find us, attacking U.S. diplomats…"

"Yes" said Integra grimly. "But what if they see a monster? I think the sight of _that_ would make them forget all about us."

"Yes…" said Walter and he sighed. "Very well. Fare you well in battle against this unholy thing."

"Not unholy, Walter" Integra said. "Just a _misuse _of holiness." But he had already hung up, and Integra was glad that he had not heard her say that. The wheels in her brain were turning so fast that she imagined smoke pouring from her ears. This monster used its enemy's _fear_ against them. It could change into whatever a person feared. She couldn't send the Geese against a being like that; it would pick them off in minutes. How to beat such a thing? Her plan mostly hinged on disabling the security personnel patrolling the manor grounds and find Andrea and Parley. But if they ran into Jayden…No person could possibly stand against such a thing. Not even Alucard. Even _he_ had _something _he feared. No person could….

No person...

No _person_ could stand against it.

But combine _several _people? Would Jayden be overwhelmed and not be able to produce the desired effect her Ershadar power created. JP had said _limited_ Godlike powers.

_Did we find out something, my Master? _Alucard's voice whispered into her brain.

"Yes, we did" she said, speaking aloud. "I want you and Seras to surround the monster. Attack Jayden from both sides. I have a theory that she will become confused and not know what to turn into."

_Like the boggart_ said Alucard.

"What?"

_"Nothing. I am already on the manor grounds, Master. I await your summons. _

The van's pulled up at the gatehouse. The guard on duty was asleep with his head on the desk, but snapped to attention as soon as he saw them approaching. "Hey now!" he yelled. "What do you think you're doing? This is private property, as you can see." His eyes widened as Pip rolled down the window and stuck a semiautomatic pistol in his face.

"Now look we don't want any trouble" he said. "Why don't you just go back to guarding the desk?" the mercenaries snickered with laughter. The gates opened and the vans picked up speed---as much as vans of their type can.

"Hey! Get off the property, you bloody wankers!" roared about a hundred security guards as they ran out from their hiding places. Most of them were wide eyed, the looks on their faces told their story in brutal simplicity: they had been trained for this sort of thing, but had never expected it to happen. Gunshots and spotlights peppered the vans; but they were made of stronger stuff than that.

"Okay, everyone!" said Pip. "Let's show them how Geese fight!" the Wild Geese flung open the doors of the vans and fired. The command center van pulled away from the mayhem and toward the main house.

"Go, go!" Integra shouted to the mercenary who was driving the van.

"Alright, Miss Hellsing!" he said. He floored the gas and roared in front of the house. A heavily armed group of Wild Geese instantly surrounded Integra as she opened the door. But there was no need. Dead security personnel lay everywhere and alarms were going off inside the house.

"Servant" Integra said calmly. Alucard materialized from the ground.

"Yes, my Master?" he asked innocently.

"What is this?" Integra asked angrily. "I didn't want you to _kill_ them. I simply wanted them stunned."

Alucard shook his head. "It makes it so much more believable if there are more dead than what you planned." He looked around. "Where's the Angel of Death? I thought he would be more than glad to go on a mission like this."

"Walter is watching the fort while I am gone" said Integra, striding up the bloodstained steps. "Where are they?"

"The Dennis are inside" Alucard said. "I haven't touched them, yet."

"Good" said Integra. "Now, let's go."

"Yahhhh!" Seras yelled as she slammed a man with Harkonnen's heavy body. She felt ribs splinter and saw blood gush out of the man's mouth as he was hurled twenty feet away. "S-sorry!" she yelled, feeling like an idiot.

"Don't apologize to enemies" said one of the Geese as he took out a security man with a headshot. "They'd just as soon kill us."

"Right, okay then" said Seras. She loaded a projectile into Harkonnen and fired. The explosion lit the entire grounds and sent charred and burned remains of human beings flying everywhere. Seras ran right through the explosion, her uniform smoking. She slammed another security out of the way and ran up the doors of the house through which her Master and Sir Hellsing had just entered.

"I wish they didn't have to cause such destruction" said Integra as they moved through the house. "But I see no other choice."

Seras kicked down the same doors they had just shut. "H-here I am, Master!" she called to Alucard. Her Master smiled. "Welcome to the killing field, Police Girl" he said. His red coat began to blow, even though there was no wind. "Does it make your blood boil? Does your lust for blood consume you?" his eyes shone red behind his glasses.

"Stop that, Alucard" Integra demanded. "I need you and Seras to find Jayden." _And finally _she thought. _This conflict…can come to an end. _

**Well, here it is. The conflict between the Hellsings and the Dennis. Alucard and Seras vs. Jayden. Both families with their monster. The showdown will commence and _both_ of Jayden's true forms will be revealed. What the heck do I mean by that? Well, continue to find out!**


	16. Fighting the Demon

**Fighting the Demon**

**Dennis Manor, 6:04 A.M**

Parley Dennis woke up to a nightmare. Alarms were blaring and he could hear frightened shouts. His first thoughts were _Nightfall. Oh, Jesus-God it's finally happened. They've found us. _Then Andrea rolled out of bed onto the floor. With catlike agility, she grabbed him from his doom thoughts.

"Parley!" she whispered. "We're under attack! What's going on?"

"I don't know" said Parley as he struggled out of bed and into some pants. "I think the security is holding off whoever is attacking" he said. "But…I don't know for how long, especially if it's _them." _A quick succession of gunshots and automatic fire outside let them know that they didn't have much time.

"Wh…what should I _pack?" _Andrea wailed helplessly. "This is so sudden? Where's the police? What's going _on?" _

Parley slapped her across the face with a loud smacking sound. "Listen, woman!" he said in a loud voice. "Don't loose your head. We still can control the situation. We don't know what is happening and that is no reason to jump to conclusions about this matter. Now, let's proceed in an orderly fashion to Jayden's room and----" the entire room lit up and his words were lost in the roar of an explosion so loud that several windows shattered under the noise. Andrea screamed and covered her ears. More screams followed these explosions. Another group of automatic fire followed and he heard a voice swear in French. "Get my shotgun" Parley said through gritted teeth as he looked out of the window. What he saw slammed into his mind like a freight train of anger and surprise. Integra Hellsing, Alucard, and Seras Victoria were walking into the broken doorway of his manor!

"What is it, dear?" asked Andrea. "Is it Gray? How many men does he have with him?"

"It's Hellsing" said Parley as he reached for the phone on the dresser. "It's those bastards that we put our trust in! Our only hope is attacking us." He said these words calmly as he might have said there was a thunderstorm brewing.

_"Hellsing?!" _asked Andrea. She pulled out a semiautomatic and began to load it. "What is Hellsing doing attacking us? We only met them once at dinner."

"Integra bitchface Hellsing has been doing a little digging" said Parley. "How she found out about Jayden, I don't know…but if she knows that Jayden is been doing those little brats, then I wonder how much else she knows. Come on!"

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"To give Sir Integral Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing a grand welcome to our house, American style" Parley said, pumping the shotgun.

* * *

Alucard and Seras silently wandered the dark hallways of the Dennis manor. The power had failed after her Harkonnen blast back there; she must have hit some kind of generator or transformer. She kept bumping into things; her vampire sight wasn't as good as Alucard's. "Master?" she asked.

"Yes, Police Girl?" he asked. He had the Cassul and Jackal held at opposite angles, pointing in two different directions. "What is it?"

"What do we do if Jayden surrenders? I don't feel sorry for her!" she assured. "It's just…I've been thinking…do we kill her anyway?"

Alucard snickered softly. "You really are too human, Police Girl. When Jayden Dennis chose to do these things, she knew what would happen when we caught up with her."

"Still…." Seras muttered under her breath.

_The shared blood that flows through out veins speaks louder than words, fledgling_ Alucard's voice said to her mind. _We are stalking an opponent that would kill us and leave our tortured bodies to rot where they fell, after feeding off the fear that flowed from our frightened souls. You ask us to spare a thing like that? _

_I understand_ Seras said back. _No mercy then, Master. _

They reached the end of the hall to where Jayden's room was. Alucard kicked down the door and pointed both of his guns at the room and fired into it, blowing up furniture and destroying posters. Gerald Way suddenly had a huge hole in the center of his head.

"You don't need to do that" said a voice from the closet. Jayden climbed out of the closet. She smiled evilly. "What did you do, bring all of Hellsing?"

"That's exactly what we did, you bitch!" Seras yelled.

Alucard looked at Jayden. The brunette girl's form wavered and twisted in his vampiric vision. He laughed mockingly. "Isn't it getting old to hold that form, Jayden? Come, let's see your _real_ beauty!"

Seras looked at Alucard. "What are you _talking_ about, Master?" she asked. All she saw was a scantily clad teenager in revealing clothing. Alucard merely sighed.

"What did I tell you about the Third Eye in your head?" he asked impatiently.

"Well now" said Jayden. "I didn't think you would see my _real_ body through all this." she began to shimmer and writhe in their sight. Seras gasped. Where the Jayden Dennis she had come to know had stood, there was a rather short girl in a pink blouse and blue jeans. Her face was very pale and freckled. Her large green eyes took Seras and Alucard in with contempt. Her night black hair fell down her upper back. She had two lip rings in her mouth, one on each corner of her mouth and a nose ring in the center of her nose. Jayden was wearing a gold cross and she fiddled with it as she watched them. Her short fingernails were painted red. She came up to Seras' chest. Barely.

"What the _Hell?" _Seras gasped.

"Why did you hide your real self from us at the dinner? Why hide it from the rest of the world. Did your parents ask you to do this?" Alucard demanded. "I noticed this at the party, but kept _that_ bit to myself. I want answers, Dennis." His voice was hard and angry, and had none of the usual biting humor that characterized the No Life King.

Jayden shrugged. "Family matters. I don't tell my prey what goes on in my house."

"Then answer these" Alucard said, pointing both the Jackal and the Cassul at her.

Jayden looked at the guns and backed up, her eyes widening. "Wh…what are you doing?" she asked nervously.Alucard aimed the Jackal at her head. "I don't know what you are" he said. "But it's judgment day for you." He pulled the trigger, the report so loud that it made the windows rattle. It was a direct head shot. Jayden Dennis's head snapped back and she flew into the opposite wall. She slumped against the floor, her hair covering the terrible wound.

Alucard stood over her, his guns still out. He knew that Integra would be pissed that he hadn't actually questioned her a little more before blowing the bitch away. Honestly, he hadn't expected himself to do that. He didn't even know that he _could_. Maybe the restraints that bastard Abraham put on him all those years ago were actually beginning to fray around the edges. Alucard's thoughts were interrupted by a hideous laugh. He whirled around to see Jayden get up from the wall. The impact of her head hitting the wall had made an indent in the plaster.

**"Well, well" **she said. "**I guess I didn't see that one coming. Stupid. I knew Hellsing's top vampire would have sniffed me out. I guess we should take this outside shouldn't we? I don't want to wake my parents." **

"Get back on the ground!" Seras said, aiming Harkonnen at the girl. "Master hit you with the Jackal! Your head should be in pieces!"

"Yeah, that _did_ kind of hurt" Jayden said, and flicked her hair back from the place where she had been hit with Alucard's bullet. Orange scales---the same kind Alucard and Integra had found---were covering the area. The bullet bounced out of the strange flesh. "Harder than diamond, super-vampire. Your guns won't have any effect on me."

Jayden threw her radio at the widow and jumped out onto the concrete walkway below. Seras rushed to the window and saw Jayden take off across the backyard. "Master, she's---" but there was no one there to talk to. Alucard had already gone in pursuit of her. Cursing the fact that she could not teleport, Seras climbed awkwardly out of the window. She ripped her tights/boots going out on the ragged glass edges, further worsening her bad mood. She landed and took off after Jayden and Alucard. The girl had reached the gates where several dead men lay scattered. Seras threw herself to the ground and took careful aim at Jayden. She fired Harkonnen at Jayden. What happened next blew her mind.

Jayden Dennis whirled around with blurring speed and caught the projectile in her hands and threw it among the Hellsing vans crowded around the entrance to the house.

"No!" Seras yelled. The explosion sent the vehicles flying into the air, and they exploded in midair as their gas tanks caught. She turned to Seras and stuck out her tongue.

"RARRRGGGG! YOU MONSTER!!" Seras screamed and dropped Harkonnen. She flew at Jayden, jumping over bushes and smashing through statues in the great garden. Seras leaped on top of Jayden and slammed the girl's face into the dirt.

"Ahhh! Get off me you #$!" Jayden yelled. She cried out as Seras slammed her head back with her fists.

"Shut your filthy mouth!" she yelled. Then she felt Alucard's blood in her veins freeze in horror. There were two men struggling under her grip. The men, who had killed and raped her mother, yes _killed _and _then _raped her mother's body. One of them even had a fork sticking out of his bloody eye socket where she had poked it into his eye.

"Whatcha doing on top me, ya little brat?" one of them snarled and pushed her off.

"Say, it's that little bitch who was so lively last time!" said the other.

The other man grinned lustily. "Ooooooh and she think she's all grown up…how _sweet!_" their rough, dirty hands reached for her uniform. She screamed and clawed, but they seemed to have the strength of giants. They wrestled her to the floor. Their hands grabbed her chest and squeezed. Except that those hands felt like claws. Their eyes glowed red in the darkness of the night. "She really is like a child" said one of the men. "She has just as much _fear---"_ he never finished because at that moment, bullets from both the Cassul and the Jackal tore the heads of the two creatures off their shoulders. Alucard materialized from the shadows of a hedge maze, his hat missing, his hair blowing about his face, his eyes red. There was no grin on his face now, just pure murder.

"Get away from her" he spat.

The men reformed into Jayden Dennis. Jayden spat blood out of her mouth. "Shit, vampire. Your bullets hurt like Hell."

"This'll hurt more!" Seras yelled and kicked Jayden in the chest. Seras felt a kind of malignant pleasure to hear the air whoosh out of Jayden's lungs and hear her cry out in pain as she hit the grassy lawn. Jayden picked herself up from the floor, moving slowly as if it hurt her.

"I…I'll kill you, Vlad" she said, and she shifted again, becoming an Arabian man dressed in long, flowing robes. Alucard stiffened, his breath catching in his throat.

_Stop it goddamn you! _he told himself. _That was hundreds of years ago! There is no reason to be afraid! Stand, stand true, stand and fight---_the man slapped him across the chest, yet the blow sent Alucard slamming into a tree and crashing into it. The Cassul and Jackal flew in two separate directions.

"Master!" Seras yelled. She kicked the man in the side and he staggered backwards, cursing in Arabic. Then she slugged him across the jaw. He dropped to the ground. Then he shifted into two Arab men. Then to two white men wearing Arabian robes. They glared and snarled in rage, hate…in confusion. "Master, it's working! She's confused like Sir Integra said."

The confused being returned back to Jayden. Her black hair stuck up at odd angles and she was clutching her side which was bloody. There was also blood on her lips, although whether it came from biting them, or from internal bleeding, Seras wasn't sure. She hoped it was the second option. "You…damn you Hellsing bastards!"

Seras rolled her eyes and waggled her tongue. "Ha, ha! Is the big bad bogeywoman afraid of a few vampires?"

"Seras!" Alucard snapped. "Do not bait her. I sense a surge of violent energy in the air…" he smiled. "Although it's interesting to see what she'll do next. Unbelievable!" he spread his arms, and his two guns returned from the places they had fallen. "Truly a worthy opponent, Jayden Dennis!"

"Worthy, eh?" Jayden said. "Fine then." She spread her arms and orange colored energy crackled along her body like lightning. **"You want to **_**fight**_**, Alucard? I'll show you and your fledgling something interesting before you die." **Jayden began to get taller and soon she was engulfed in the cocoon of orange light.

"…..wow…." said Seras when the transformation was finished. Where Jayden had stood, a huge orange dragon stood. Its fangs were coated with old blood and so were its claws. It stank of the sewers and something else…something more primal. Its tattered wings flapped, sending up a huge gale of wind that knocked over statues and uprooted small trees.

"Another monster…" said Alucard. He fired both Cassul and Jackal. The bullets bounced off the dragon's scaly hide. It's scaly _orange_ hide. This explained the orange scales found at the scene of the crimes.

Seras stood, screaming. She could not remember ever having been this scared in her entire life. Not even when the vampire-priest had grabbed her had she wanted to run away this badly. She wanted to run all the way back across London and hide in her coffin and never come out again. Not as long as monsters like this roamed the Earth. Then, the dragon staggered and it fell to the ground. As Seras and her Master watched, it began to cough. Blood gushed in a fountain from its jaws. It splashed Seras and, against her will, she took a sample. She spat it out instantly; it was like drinking concentrated jalapeño juice. Soon it began to shrink…and shrink…and shrink. Soon it was just plain ordinary Jayden Dennis, with her pink, bloodstained blouse and blue jeans. Or perhaps not, because she still wore her _true_ form, not the cover up she had presented at the dinner or at any other place in Britain. Her _true _look. She fell to her knees, coughing up blood. Seras went to help her…and then remembered everything. She coldly stared at the suffering before her.

Then Jayden fell to the ground in a dead faint.

"Is…is it over?" Seras asked.

"Yes" said Alucard. "It is." He walked over to Jayden…pulled out the Jackal. The black gun gleamed in the lights from the small fires here and there. Far away, Seras could hear police sirens whining, too little and too late. The sound of a gunshot split the silence.

* * *

Across the street from the Dennis manor, in a gray van, two other viewers sat watching. "Vhat a battle" said a woman dressed like a priest in a heavy German accent. "I couldn't even count all of the explosions that vent on there."

"Heinkel, hurry and send it all on the video to the chief" complained another, more delicate looking woman dressed in a nun habit.

"Vhat's vrong Yumiko?" asked the woman named Heinkel.

Yumiko rubbed her head viciously. "It's…it's _her, _Heinkel. She sees the fighting, the screams…the blood, and _she_ wants to get out and fight it out with that monster in the manor."

"Vell, then let's get out of here" said Heinkel. She glanced in the rearview mirror and saw about a hundred police sirens heading toward the manor. "Ve've already seen enough. I think that Yummie vill haff to vait a long time before she ist ready for a battle vith _that._" Heinkel smiled and the smile was not pleasant. "But I know vhat could finish of that Satanic dragon. Father Anderson."


	17. Shuffle

**Shuffle **

Integra walked up the stairs amid the gunshots and screams outside. She knew that Alucard and Seras were fighting Jayden, and _that_ was now out of the way. She didn't have any doubts that Alucard could win against the girl. Now to find---

Integra was never sure exactly what made her duck her head down. Maybe it was JP's guiding hand or something. All she knew was that she _did_ duck and a huge chunk of plaster exploded behind her. She looked up the stairs to see Parley Dennis bare-chested and wearing brown trousers. He was holding a 12. gauge pump shotgun and aiming it at her head. Andrea Dennis crouched behind him with a semiautomatic handgun in shaking hands. "Welcome to the Dennis manor, you fucking Brit!" he yelled down the stairs at her. "Like the hospitality?"

Integra shook her head. "Parley Dennis, it's over. I already know your secret." Her voice hardened. "What you've done is unforgivable! You've released a monster on the children of London." She drew her sword. "Surrender in the name of the Royal Protestant Knights."

"Why should we?" Andrea asked. "You don't understand! We had no choice to do what we did. You know nothing about us. Who are you to pass judgment?" She fired a quick succession of rounds at Integra. She leaped to the side and they peppered the carpeted stairway with holes. There was a roar of thunder and a small explosion of wood and splinters erupted before Integra's startled eyes. Integra rolled to the side and ran halfway up the stairs. Parley pumped the shotgun and began to insert more shells.

"I have you!" Integra snarled. She swung the sword---and cried out in pain as she was hit in the leg by one of Andrea's bullets. She was covering her husband as he reloaded. By the time she looked up, she was looking down the barrel of a shotgun.

"Bye, Sir Hellsing" Parley said. His face was gray and sweating. He started to pull the trigger and then broke off in a bubble of agony as Pip shot him in the chest twice from the landing. He fell down the stairs with a heavy thud, past Integra.

"Merde!" Pip swore. "Are you alright, Zir 'Ellzing?"

"_PARLEY, NOOOOO!" _Andrea screamed. She dropped her gun and went to her husband's side. Integra walked over and slammed the back of her head with the hilt of her sword, knocking Mrs. Dennis out cold. Then she walked toward Pip, not saying a word.

"Mizzion accomplished" the Frenchman said. "We lost a few men" he said sadly. "But most of ze casualties were zere's. I zink Sir Alucard and Police Girl are fighting ze monster----what's wrong, Zir Integra?"

Integra grabbed the captain of the Wild Geese and slammed him up against the wall. _"Why?!" _she snapped. "Why did you shoot him? I could have gotten some kind of information from him! While I admit you did save my life, you saved it at the cost of---" her ranting was cut off by a terrible roar that filled the air for what seemed like miles. Even the sounds of the gunshots outside stopped as the men, both Wild Geese and Dennis security, stopped to listen to that terrible sound. It was like the roar of some prehistoric beast that has awakened from a long, long slumber. It was the roar of a monster. Then it choked off into a terrible gargle that was somehow even worse.

"What was _zat_?" Pip gasped. Integra let go of him, and the mercenary captain slumped to the floor as if he had no strength left. Indeed, Integra felt her own legs trembling, as if the will to move had been sucked from her body by that chilling cry.

She staggered down the stairs, finally collapsing when she reached the bottom. Integra dragged herself along the floor to try and get close to the source of that cry. She was not the only one on the floor, she saw. Men were lying on the floor, some moaning, others cursing their weakened bodies.

A shadowy mist took shape in front of her. Integra raised herself up on one elbow. Alucard appeared before her. He looked shaken and his coat was in tatters. This worried her a bit, because she knew that he healed exactly when he was finished in battle. He was carrying someone in his arms.

"A…Alucard? What is….going on?" Integra asked. She leaned on the wall to get a good grip and pulled herself up. She saw the girl in Alucard's arms. "Who is this?" she asked. "Where is Jayden Dennis? Is she dead? Is this one of her intended victims?"

"No, Master" said Alucard. "This _is_ Jayden Dennis."

Integra took in the black hair and pale skin, the lip rings in the corners of her mouth, her general _difference _from the person who had appeared at the dinner at Hellsing Manor. "What are you _talking _about? Of course this isn't Jayden---"

"She hid her true form behind another one" said Alucard. "She is some kind of shape-shifter."

"I know that" Integra said. "I think that we shoud---" she was cut off by a loud wail of sirens. The police! She had completely forgotten about telling Walter to call them! What horrid luck. She had wanted them to arrive to see Jayden reveal her true form in front of all of them. Now all they would see was that they had been right after all. A group _had _attacked the Dennis manor. Integra fought to free her body of the weakness. "What _is_ this, anyway?" she asked Alucard. "What happened to all of us? Why aren't you affected as well?"

"Some kind of strength sapping properties the dragon must posses" Alucard said.

"Well, let's get everyone" Integra said grimly as she prepared to face the Fuzz.

* * *

In Jayden's unconscious, pain filled mind, events happened so distantly that, although great spaces of time must have passed between them, they felt like a big shuffle.

**Shuffle. **

A man, bending over her, one eye covered by a patch. "Get 'er into ze van quickly!" he yelled in a French accent.

"What about Sir Integra?" says a blond vampire. "She and Master are still inside and the police---"

"She _wants_ zem to arrest 'er for some bloody reason!" yelled the French guy. "Now 'urry!"

**Shuffle. **

Pain, lots of it. Burning and singing deep inside. Like a choir of Hell. Perhaps this _is_ Hell, for what she did to the children. She can't breathe. She screams to end it, to let her die, but this man, this _demon_ won't let her. With his kindly, but stern face and his monocle this demon named Walter tells her she must rest. She tries to sit up, but a fountain of blood spurts out and she passes out again into the black

**Shuffle. **

The woman, Sir Integra Hellsing, bending over her, telling her something, but she can't understand. Her face is angry, her mouths moves in short, angry thrusts. She hopes Hellsing bites her tongue off. Sir Hellsing's hands are not gloved, they are instead handcuffed together and two men in dark suits flank her. She says something else and leaves. _Fuck you too_ she thinks and once more there is a

**Shuffle. **

This time she feels a bit better and is able to eat solid food. From the bruises on her arms, she has been fed through an I.V. all this time. Still, she is not hungry and tries to bite the Walter when he tries to feed her bread and bacon for breakfast. He merely shrugs and lockes the cell door. She knows it is morning, but from some reason she cannot see the sun, only grayish green stone walls. That is _very _strange, and she has enough consciousness to think that she must be in some sort of underground cell. Then it's back to the old

**Shuffle. **

This time, she wakes up and knows that she is a prisoner. Band aids cover her arms, but the pain inside her body is gone. She looks around and sees someone enter a large steel door that has been put in her cell. She struggles to sit up in bed as Integra Hellsing comes in to look at her. Hellsing sits on a chair next to the bed. Integra looks at her. She looks back. Finally, her enemy speaks.

"Welcome to Hellsing, Jayden Dennis. Except, I think that for you, we can taking the 'ing' off."

_**Big**_** Shuffle. **


	18. A Timely Visit

**A Timely Visit **

**Vatican City, Rome 12:56 P.M.**

Archbishop Enrico Maxwell sat at his desk, neatly typing at his computer. He was working on an exact list of how many agents were currently in the field at this moment. The names on the screen highlighted in red were the ones who were still at HQ. There were a great many priests who wished that they were running Section XIII Iscariot, but Maxwell could have told them that it was not all fun and games, there were certain messes that had to be cleaned up, and that most of the civilized world did not understand that the disposal of wretched heathens and Satan tools was the work of the Agents of Divine Punishment. Thus the string pulling with various police and human rights agencies. A heavy knocking sound on the wooden door of the office interrupted Maxwell from his thoughts.

"Come in" he called. The door opened and his aide, Father Renaldo came in. The old man looked terrible, as if he had seen the Devil himself; Maxwell caught himself thinking before removing his mind firmly from the gutter. "Father Renaldo" he said. "What news is there from our field men?" Renaldo always had news that he imparted to the director when he came into the office during working hours. "Are you alright?"

Father Renaldo slumped down into the chair before Maxwell's desk. "Bishop Maxwell" he said. "I have some rather upsetting news to report."

Maxwell was immediately alert. "What is it?" he asked. "Another terrorist squad attack on a church? A group of satanic men and women writing heathen messages on Vatican property? Tell me, praise God!" Maxwell's lips were pulled back from his teeth. He looked not-quite-sane. Indeed, that might have been the case.

Renaldo shook his head. "That is not it. I can scarcely believe the truth of it all myself." He held up a small package that had been opened. "It was addressed to you" he said, "but I opened it myself, as it was from Heinkel and Yumiko. It contains a video, as you can probably feel."

"And?" Maxwell asked. "What is in this video? Them, _annihilating _another group of---"

"No" said Renaldo. "Bishop Maxwell, do you remember the incidents in London, the child murders?"

"Yes, what of them?" Maxwell asked. He had heard small snippets of information on the murders. They had not interested him much. It was most likely a psychopathic killer and he hadn't the time for such nonsense. Besides, if it _was_ something really nasty, it was Hellsing's concern, not Iscariot's.

"It turns out…that it was not the work of human hands. Nor was it vampires but something else entirely." With that, Renaldo put the video into a television and VCR that Maxwell kept for video records of missions. "Heinkel and Yumiko were tracking the creature while they were staying in London on holiday. But they suspected that the murders were not being committed by a mortal and tracked Hellsing to its prey. Here's what they found. It still leaves me cold."

Maxwell was about to say _something_---he didn't know what, just something---when the TV went on. Looking at the images of a burning manor and men lying all over the place, he wondered if it was some kind of mistake. But soon, the camera pulled in closer and Hellsing's trash man and his little fledgling could be seen. He saw the battle between them and Jayden Dennis. When the footage had finished playing, Maxwell reached for a glass of water that he had on the table next to him. Had he not been a priest, he would have demanded something a bit stronger. "So it's true" he said through lips that were as cold and dry as snow. "The power…the Ershadar vessels have begun to wake."

"Surely not!" said Father Renaldo. "This is just…this is just a freak---"

Maxwell jumped up from the table and slammed his fists down. "IT IS NOT JUST A FREAK ACIDENT, CAN YOU SAY HALLELUJAH! DON'T YOU SEE? IT'S THEM, IT'S THEM!" he sat back down, sweat running in sick rivers down his face. "I must…I must inform His Holiness. The vessels of Ershadar that the Almighty entrusted to guard his power are awakening. The dragons are stirring."

Father Renaldo backed away from the desk, his face a pallid mask of fear. "What do we do?" he asked, twitching and nervous, as if there were demons in the office that would jump out any second and devour him.

"I am going to make a visit to Integra Hellsing" said Maxwell. He started the video again, and then froze it to the shot of the girl in Alucard's arms. "ThereThat is what we are looking for. Jayden Dennis, an American. She is invested with a dragon's spirit."

"An odd thing to happen to an American, wouldn't you say?" asked Father Renaldo with a weak smile, trying to put some light into such a pitch black situation. Maxwell ignored him. He remained entranced by the girl on the screen.

"Yes..." he said to himself. "I remember this girl's face. She hid it behind another, false, face but now her true form is revealed. I remember seeing her on a poster. Apparently we of Iscariot are not the only ones to know about dragons."

"You mean Nightfall?" asked Renaldo.

"Yes" said Maxwell. "Father Renaldo, I want a message sent to His Holiness right away. I am going to Britain to settle this situation down before it escalates into something uncontrollable." He turned to his aide. "I want the dragons coming to Iscaritot, not Hellsing or Nightfall. To think that that Protestant sow has one in her clutches...it makes my blood boil." He then shrugged. "But no matter. It is not even a pure dragon. I think it would be best if we neutralized it. Inform Anderson that we leave in three hours."


	19. The Hazards of Fire

**The Hazards of Fire **

**10:34 A.M. Hellsing Manor, U.K. **

_I really should take stock in Advil_ Integra thought as she dry swallowed three tablets. The past two weeks had been a living Hell of madness, insanity and paperwork. After Alucard had transferred the unconscious Jayden Dennis to Seras and Pip, the Wild Geese had taken the girl to Hellsing Manor. Then she and Alucard had silently waited for Scotland Yard and MI-5 to show up. There had been terrible chaos when they had discovered that _the_ Integral Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing had been the mastermind behind the terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomats. She had been taken to jail for three days. After that, she had been released and put on house arrest. The Queen herself was furious with her. She demanded to know why this had occurred, and Integra had been required to visit in person (accompanied by armed guards, of course) to Buckingham Palace and made to answer every single question that the Queen had seen fit to ask of her. Integra knew that the monarch would not believe some of the things that she said, so she omitted the truth. The revised version of the story was this:

The rash of child-murders had been caused by a ravenous demon from the lower regions that had been summoned by the Dennis family using satanic rituals. They had used it to kill children to gratify their hellish desires. The Hellsing Agency had smelled a rat, and Alucard had been sent to finish the monster and the whole Agency had gotten involved.

The Queen had been angered greatly by this. Since Parley Dennis was in critical condition after being shot in the chest by Pip and Andrea Dennis was in jail, no one could _really_ disprove her story. Integra didn't feel a shred of remorse for sullying their family name. As far as she was concerned, Parley and Andrea could be deported back to the States. They could even be executed for all she cared. No, what she _really _was interested in was Jayden. Jayden was something else entirely. She wasn't sure why the girl interested her that much, but it was like an obsession. When Jayden had been carried back to the manor, Walter had examined her, and seen immediately that she was in shock. When they got doctors to look at her, they had found a most disturbing thing: Jayden's internal organs were all suffering from burns of varying severity. It seemed that while she was a dragon, she had attempted to _breathe fire. _Somehow, though she had taken the form of a dragon, her physical insides had remained human. And a human couldn't take pure flame passing through their body. Integra shook her head. It made sense in a weird sort of way. Physiology in the madhouse. There was a knock at the door.

"My lady, I have a visitor to see you" said Walter from the other side.

"Yes, send her in" Integra said, already knowing who Walter spoke of. She had told Jayden Dennis that she would be seeing her in her office soon. But she wasn't sure if the girl had regained enough consciousness to understand words yet.

The door opened and Walter ushered Jayden inside, and then stood against the wall. The girl was wearing a white hoody and blue jeans. Her black hair lay neatly on her shoulders. Her ears were decorated with earrings in the shape of stars. She wore a small gold cross around her neck. She had the same lip rings in the corners of her mouth, and she had added a nose ring as well.

As soon as Jayden sat down, Integra spoke. " Pull your sleeves up please, Ms. Dennis" she said

Jayden glanced sourly at Integra. "Where are my mom and dad?" she asked. Her green eyes were bright with some emotion---Sadness? Anger? Fear? ----that Integra couldn't read.

"You parents are well enough" Integra said. She rapped a pencil on the table. "Now! Your sleeves---pull them up."

"Why should I?" Jayden asked.

Integra sighed. She wasn't angry. On the contrary, she felt exhilarated, a warrior who sees a worthy opponent after years of mindless drudge. "Jayden" she said instead. "I notice that you look different from when we last met at the dinner party."

Jayden shrugged. "Yeah…I was dressed like a slut then, but now I'm a little more normal---"

"You changed your entire body's form, Jayden. How and why did you do it? Or rather, _why_ did you do it since I already know the _how_. You possess the power of Ershadar. The power that creates and destroys."

Jayden's emerald eyes widened a little, but her freckled face remained calm. "How do you know about the power?"

"That is not important. I want to know why."

"Where are my parents?" Jayden asked again. "I have a question, you have one. What about a fair trade?"

Integra pretended to consider. Then: "No. I want the information that you are hiding Jayden. When I was first told of your power, I thought I had you figured out---but now I see that there is _much_ more to you than I thought. You transformed into a dragon during your fight with Alucard."

"How did you like my 'Uncle Richard' impression?" Jayden teased. "The way you took off running, I'd say I was pretty on the mark!"

For the first time, Integra felt anger at the American. She decided to try an attack of her own. "I'm sure you are familiar with Walter by now?" she asked.

Jayden looked over at Walter, who acknowledged her with a silent nod.

"He's been taking care of you for two weeks now. In fact, I would even go as far as to say that he has been keeping you alive." She smiled, and the smile was as cold and dark as the bottom of a well at mid-winter. "Ironically, for all the life saving Walter has done, he was once known as the 'Angel of Death'. Do you know why?"

"W-why?" Jayden asked.

"This is why" Walter said, exactly on time. They had rehearsed this already, and he was doing marvelously. He flicked his hand, and Jayden felt a searing pain in her bottom lip. She gasped and clasped one hand to her mouth. It came away bloody and she looked up.

"What the fuck did you do?" Jayden demanded. Integra held up a silver ring, rolling it around in her gloved hand. One of her lip rings. Jayden felt as if a block of ice had replaced her stomach. Walter had pulled it out of her flesh by some kind of invisible force.

"Microfilament wires" he said. "It is _quite_ the useful skill. One never knows when it might come in handy." His monocle gleamed in the morning light. "It can cut apart a group of insane Nazis for example, or an army of ghouls. Or" he said, with what Integra knew was his best leering grin, "an imprudent teenager."

"Jayden licked the blood that was flowing down her chin. "I got it" she said. Her mouth was so dry that her bloody tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. "What do you want?" Jayden asked.

"I want you to pull up your sleeves and cease this witless banter" Integra said, this time with a tinge of very real anger. The barb about her Uncle Richard had sunk into her mind's flesh like a poisoned barb. She had nightmares about her disastrous investigation at Dennis manor now, except this time her legs moved slowly and the thing caught up to her.

Jayden slowly pulled the sleeves of her hoody up to reveal the lines of the tattoo ingrained in her flesh.

"Now" said Integra. "Time for question two. What does this thing

* * *

Gray stood on one of the teatime terraces at Cavel Manor. It belonged to Arthur Cavel, a vampire and one of Nightfall's high council. The old man was letting the Gray Men use it as a base of operations until the caught the "demon". Gray smiled and twirled his large umbrella that he was holding over his head to shield from the sunlight. Demon indeed! It was a dragon, one of the Ershadar race that had long ago inhabited the Earth. Or if not a dragon…then definitely it's spirit.

"Michele" he said. His sister was drinking tea at one of the table, and umbrella spread over her to keep out the sun. She reeked of sun block.

"What is it?" she snapped, looking up from the book she was reading. "Do you _have _to interrupt me when I'm reading all the time? It's like you wait and then…bam! You have something you want to talk about."

"We have the location of that priest, Otto Kramer. He's a German and a retired S.S. officer. He became a priest after the war. He's a close friend of Parley Dennis." Gray held up the newspaper. The headline screamed out. **Child Murderer Killed In Fatal Police Shootout! **it said.

"Bullshit" said Michele. "We know that Dennis' daughter was the one who---"

"_Right" _said Gray. "Now, I have a hunch on what happened to it. If you look a little in the paper, you'll find a _small _article about the Dennis manor being attacked by 'unidentified terrorists'. It was so obviously Hellsing. Everything we know about that organization says that it has pull within the British government. A member of Parliament is on its Roundtable Knights! So obviously they got Dennis and they don't want anyone to find out." A slow, evil grin spread across his face. "But I think we're going to be the ones to strike first."

"But Lady Mina said to avoid Alucard" Michele protested. "If Hellsing's got Jayden, we'll have to go back and get reinforcements. Some of the council's got pull in Britain too."

Gray shook his head. "No, no, and no. There's too much of a chance that something in this plan would alert Mina to _my_ plans to overthrow her. I want this handled by us alone."

Michele sighed. "What do you want us to do?"

"First things first we find Kramer. I'll take care of that. I know the old man's address. I'll educate him on what the Nightfall Corporation does to people who get in its way. _You _Michele have a slightly more complicated job."

"What's that?" she asked.

"I want you to start a rash of vampire attacks in London that have not been seen since the Count Himself."


	20. Judas Laughs

**Judas Laughs **

**Hellsing Manor 6:25 P.M. Tuesday afternoon **

Integra was still marveling over the smart mouthed Jayden. That girl was a real piece of work. She had the courage to smile even in the captivity of her enemies. "Perhaps she should be added to our ranks?" Integra mused aloud. Then she decided against it. Jayden would never consent. Besides, her parents were still alive, she had family. They would most likely be deported back to America on some trumped up charge to hide what they thought had happened. No, this whole thing would soon be over with---just another unexplained mystery to plague her thoughts in the darkest depths of the night. That was when Seras burst into the door. The young vampire had looked terrible since the battle at Dennis manor and she looked even worse now. Her face was pallid and sweaty and her eyes were wide and filled with horror. She was clutching a file to her chest as if it contained all the secrets of Hell inside. Perhaps it did. After what Integra had seen recently, she doubted that anything would surprise her anymore.

"What is it, Seras?" Integra asked. "What's happening?"

"Sir Integra" Seras gasped. "Something terrible has happened. It started yesterday, but we didn't find any culprits…and now, _this!" _

"What is _this?" _Integra asked sharply. "Has there been a vampire incident?"

"Yes, Sir" said Seras. She placed the envelope on the desk. "These are pictures from Buckingham Palace."

"Did the Queen send these?" Integra asked.

"No, but she had them sent. It…it's terrible."

Integra opened the file and choked in anger and loathing. At the gates of Buckingham Palace, men had been speared on the gates of the place. Their red uniforms were soggy with their own blood. Their black hats were caked with it. The throats of the gate guards had not just been bitten---they had been torn out.

"There was a message written in the blood on the sidewalk" said Seras. "It says 'come home, come home, come home'. That's all."

"Do you have any idea what that means?" Integra asked, lighting a cigar. "Is this some kind of prank? What are they doing? Vampires don't usually make such a large spectacle…and whoever _these_ were, they made the biggest they could possibly make. Goddamn freaks." She puffed furiously and then exhaled a large cloud of smoke. "I suppose that the vampires who did this had some purpose for their actions…this wasn't any random killing." She slammed her fist on the table. "Damn it! And right after one mystery, another pops up."

"What should we do?" asked Seras.

"I will think of something" said Integra. "For now, tell the Geese that Hellsing is _not_ going to the Palace. We will remain here for now. I don't know whether or not I am in the Queen's good graces right now, and to appear at this moment of stress might be unwise."

When Seras left, Integra sat back in her chair. This was bad. There was no denying that something was not right with the killings. First of all, no vampire would do something like this and expect to get away with it. Did they really think that…She shook her head. No matter. They would get to the bottom of this new mystery. A sound outside attracted her attention. Integra looked outside and knew she was dreaming. A black car had pulled up to the manor, and getting out was…Enrico Maxwell and his aide, Father Renaldo. Worse, behind them was… "Angel Dust", "Killing Judge" "Bayonet"….Father Alexander Anderson! Integra felt her mouth go dry. This was impossible. What did the Vatican want with Hellsing at a time like this? They had sent no announcement, no warning…anything to warn them that they were going to pay a visit. Integra flung open the doors of her office. Dashing into the hallway. The golden sunlight streaming into the manor made ghastly shadows as she flew down the stairs.

"Lady Integra" said Walter. "What is---"

"Iscariot!" she burst out and then was past him as if she had never been there in the first place. She had not gotten to the basement steps yet, when there was a loud and powerful knock at the door.

"I suppose…I suppose I _should _answer that" said Walter, slipping on the special gloves he used to handle the delicate wires he used with such grim accuracy. As he opened the door, Integra arrived next to him. She set her face in its best cold stare.

"Hello, Father Maxwell…I trust there is a reason for this visit?"

Maxwell tittered. "Oh yes, Sir Integra Hellsing" he said. "Oh, by the way, it is _Archbishop _Maxwell now. And when you hear the news that I have to impart to you…you will see that my visit is very meaningful indeed."

Judas had just laughed.


	21. Chapter I can't name

**Chapter I can't think of a name for**

**7:35, Suburban Neighborhood U.K.**

Michelle stood over the cowering children. Their parents lay dead hanging from the ceiling in blood slicked chains. They had hung the man and woman from the ceiling by running the chains through their bodies.

"What do you want?" asked one of the boys, a creature of about twelve. He lay with his broken arms twisted beside him. One of the Gray Men, a man named Clinton leaned over. He grabbed the boy's arm. The child shrieked and with a meaty twisting sound, Clinton tore it off from the socket.

"We want to eat your little guts!" he snarled.

Michelle smiled, licking her bloodstained chin. "Eat up, guys" she said. "We've still got six more houses to go." The boy's little sister began to run down the hallway. A girl of five, she vomited all the way down the stairs. Michelle sent her flying down to the landing with a kick. Then she flew down the stairs and grabbed the toddler. She slammed the head of the child into the wall, making a large bloodstain. "Good" she said, and like a master artist, she began to create her mural.

The agonized cries increased all over the place as the Gray Men began to run into the houses and attack people. Doors did no good; the vampires merely kicked them down. Religious objects were tossed into the fireplace, or used to stake people to the walls. One of them, a woman named Kerishan embedded a cross in the chest of a man and lay him on top of his large mantle like a filleted fish.

"Good work" Michelle said. "Make sure they don't become ghouls…I don't want them to run off and alert people. Hellsing will find out soon enough." She went back to the other house to look at the mural she had made with the girl's blood. _Come home, come home, come home, dragon_ was written all over in fresh blood.

* * *

Integra sat facing Maxwell in the parlor of Hellsing Manor. The sky had clouded over and Integra could hear patters of rain splattering against the windowpanes. "Father---no, _Archbishop _Maxwell, please explain why you are here. I received no warning from the Vatican concerning your presence, and a visit from you demands an explanation."

Maxwell sat back in his chair and sipped the cup of tea that Walter had poured for him. Anderson and Renaldo were seated on either side of him. "We are here" said Maxwell, "in relation to a string of _terrible _events that have occurred here in London these past few weeks" he said. "Those child murders---so terrible, so cruel." He sipped his tea again.

"We just wanted to see how we could help ye, Hellsing" said Anderson in his thick Irish accent, speaking for the first time since they had arrived. The words sounded forced, and Integra was most sure that they were. Iscariot---Anderson especially---hated Hellsing's guts. They would rather see every member of the Agency dead and buried than help them with any kind of problem. Integra knew this. Maxwell knew this.

Continuing the charade, Integra smiled. "Thank you for your kindness. In truth, we have had quite the time catching the murderers."

"_Murderers?" _Maxwell asked. "I was under the impression that there was only one culprit."

"And where did you here this?" Integra asked. "The papers covered up the story as much as possible; it had gotten too big to dismiss entirely. The running story is that the police killed the suspect and that the body is not being revealed. What are _you_ talking about, Archbishop?"

Maxwell cleared his throat. Then he smiled. "My dear _Lady _Integra" he said, a small smile that twitched at the edges curling his lips. "Please do not underestimate Section XIII's strong information network. We know what really happened. You traced the killers to a family of U.S. diplomats, the Dennis family. Their daughter Jayden was responsible for these heinous crimes."

Integra's hands tightened on the armrests of her chair, but her face remained calm. "Is that so?" she said. "What proof do you have of this? Have you consulted the Queen or any of the Roundtable Knights about this matter?" _If any of the Knights have told him, I will _personally _make sure he is thrown from the top floor of Buckingham Palace_ Integra thought to herself. "More importantly," she continued, "why do you take such an interest in our disposal of another monster? This was in _London, which_ lies in the heart of British territory. I hardly think that you can find fault with that."

"No, no you are right Lady Integra," said Maxwell. "I have no problem with you dealing with this creature as you see fit. There is, however, much that you do not know. May I ask you a question? A couple perhaps?"

"One" Integra said flatly.

"Very well" Maxwell said. He and Renaldo leaned close and began to whisper. Integra noticed that Anderson was looking over all sections of the room---almost certainly on the lookout for his hated enemy Alucard.

Maxwell finally turned to her. "My question is this: where is Jayden Dennis now?"

Integra sighed and took out a cigar. She stuck it in her mouth, but did not light it. "You ask an impossible question, Father Maxwell," she said. "Jayden and her family were taken to jail. "She is a FREAK and therefore requires special security. She passes beyond Hellsing's jurisdiction and most likely to MI-6 or---"

_"Stop lying."_ Maxwell looked at her, the smile on his face gone. "I know that you have something about her. Now, _where is she now?" _He set the cup on the table and took a deep breath. "She is not a vampire, artificial or real," he said. "You know it, I know it. Where is she?"

"What would Section XIII want with her?" Integra asked. She could feel her anger and hatred toward Maxwell festering just below the surface, like an ugly red infection. "What does she have that you want? A trade of information perhaps? What you want her for, in exchange for what I know."

"Ye well know we could _force _the words from ye're lips, ye Protestant wench!" Anderson thundered, rising from his seat. His coat flapped around him and his hands were suddenly filled with a multitude of bayonets. Integra felt her stomach roll against her will, and suddenly remembered at Badwick when she had barely managed to block his mad attack. She had her sword then, and now she only had a small pistol that she had tucked into her suit jacket. Yet she faced her religious and personal enemies, her eyes cold and steely.

"If you even _touch _me in any malign way, you will cause a religious and political disaster, the likes of which have not been seen in _centuries" _Integra said. "I think you know that, do you not _Archbishop _Maxwell? With rank comes responsibility. I think that you would _hate _to be responsible for such a happening. So perhaps you should _think _before you act."

Maxwell's mouth tightened in anger. Then he whistled his breath out in a rush of anger. "Stand down, Anderson" he said.

"Tch" the Irishman said, but he sat down as ordered.

Maxwell looked at Integra resting his head on his folded hands. All of the tea cups lay cold and forgotten. "Jayden Dennis is in this facility, isn't she?" he asked quietly. "You know that she has the ability to switch forms? The form she most likely presented to you is not her real one---"

"We are aware of this" Integra said, cutting him off. It was a trick question, and she knew it; if she said she was aware of Jayden's shape changing, the obvious question was _how do you know? _But she didn't care.

"Perhaps a deal can be reached" said Father Renaldo, speaking for the first time. "Surely we need not be at each other's throats like this. Perhaps your idea was right, Sir Hellsing. The exchange of information. Surely it cannot harm the Vatican to do such? We would actually _gain _something from it."

Maxwell gazed at Integra. "I will find a way to acquire that little brat" he said in the same quiet voice that he had used earlier. "We are the Earthly Agents of Divine Punishment…with God's help we will catch the Ershadar abuser and _destroy _her." He got up. "We're leaving" he announced. "I will be back, _Sir Hellsing._" He got up and walked out of the door.

Integra sat for a while and then lit her cigar. "Well" she said to the empty room, "I suppose that was a _useful _conversation."

* * *

As they headed toward the car, Father Anderson turned to Maxwell. "Whit was goin' through ye're head, back there Director?" he asked. "We could have easily forced the location from the heretic's mouth."

Maxwell smiled. "I know we could. But that Protestant sow was right…if we harmed her, it _would _cause a political row. But if it is politics she wants, who are we, humble servants of the Lord, to refuse? I will find a way to get Jayden from them. And once we do…" he grinned.

"We'll hit them from the flank with everythin' we have!" Anderson said, a maniacal grin stretching his face.

"_Yes!" _said Maxwell. "We will lure the sinners with promises of dragons and power…and then crush them all with one fell swoop! Hellsing, Nightfall, and Mina Harker…all will be squashed into dust beneath our heels!"

Father Renaldo sighed. He silently wished that he wasn't hearing this. He was getting to old to be involved with these types of plans.

**For those who were waiting for a fight between Alucard and Anderson---I'm sorry. That's for later. But I think that the word duel between Integra and Maxwell was pretty good. See you next time! **


	22. Flight of Dragons

**Flight of Dragons **

**8:45 P.M. Villa Park Chicago **

Mina Harker sat typing at her computer. Behind her, her large aquarium hummed as it pumped in air to keep the fish inside alive. She smiled as she regarded the e-mail that had been sent to her.

**Ms. Harker, **

**We are currently in London and have secured Mr. Cavel's manor. That is the good news. Now for the bad. Currently, Gray's plans to overthrow you are still in high gear. But we've hit a snag, both for us and for the organization as a whole. Marachute has fallen into Hellsing's hands. The idiots don't know what they have, but they are in custody. Worse, Section XIII Iscariot may be involved in this also. We don't have a positive on that, so don't worry too much. We are currently awaiting orders from you and the council. **

**Your faithful servant, **

**Michelle Rogan. **

Mina shook her head. "Gray, you stupid, stupid fool. I keep giving you chances to call of this stupid little coup you're planning, but you just don't get the message." Mina was a shrewd businesswoman and had cut the heads off of many plots to take her company and organization from her. She had not worked this hard for nothing. She thought of "Alucard." So, working for Hellsing was he? She always got a kick out of that. It was the most ironic of ironies that the Master was trapped into being the role of the Servant. Then her face tightened in anger. Though he had, unbeknownst to them at time, given her eternal life, her existence had not been easy. Finding her way as a new vampire in the streets of almost every European country without a Master to guide her had been living Hell. There was no one to turn to when she realized that the treatments had failed and she was a vampire, doomed to wander the night in search of blood. All of them had passed on with their lives. Jonathan had died in one of her vampire rages, and so had their son, Quincy. She had tried to hide her bloodlust from them, only hunting at night when the pain became unbearable. As they died in her arms, from the hideous wounds that she had inflicted upon them, she could almost hear Alucard laughing. She had then vowed that she would make them all suffer, the human world where vampires had to hide from the light of day and scuttle around behind false faces and closed doors! Nightfall would end all that, Nightfall would be the _new _way of life. She had traveled to America and learned all sorts of new things. Mina had been everything in her time; lawyer, doctor, biologist, historian (she was especially good at this job) even a hooker. She founded her company on the blood of its former owner after becoming the vice president. Afterwards, she had assembled a cabal of other ancient vampires of wealth and prominence. It was her historian job that had actually put her on the path of the dragons and their Ershadar power. There were dragons in all human mythology. Some were evil and foul, other brought good fortune and luck. Therefore they had to be real. Just like vampires…

But that was another topic.

She allowed Gray this much freedom because she wanted to see how much rope he would take to hang himself. She had known about his plans for betrayal long before he had openly put them into action among his followers, the assassins called the "Gray Men." She knew of Michelle's doubts about the plans, even before Michelle had become her mole in the Gray Men. How? Simple, the two of them were her fledglings and she could read their minds like books. All of their thoughts she could access at whim.

But back to the dragons.

She had hunted and searched for a way to _find _one of these dragons and wake it up. _Then _she could find out how to possess the power of the Almighty and reform the Earth to fit the children of the night. She supposed that if she had enough, she _could _create another Earth, but what fun was that? It was better to wreak destruction and chaos on the current planet. Then they had located Marachute. Marachute had apparently been a Lady, or a Queen of dragons. Her mate Argus traveled with her and they had both died together. Mina's spies had located their tomb finally, in northern Uganda. But before she could take hold of the dragons that were within, Jayden Dennis and her family had to move in and take what she wanted from her. Now the little brat was possessed by a dragon spirit…although whether the spirit was Marachute's or Argus' she couldn't tell. It didn't matter anyway. She would get them all.


	23. The Taking of Jolene Zephyr

**The Taking of Jolene Zephyr**

**8:34 P.M. Hellsing Manor, U.K. **

In the underground cell that serves as her room and obvious prison, Jayden Dennis tosses and turns on the wooden bed that has been brought down by Seras and Walter. She wants to sleep, she is tired, and worse, she is worried about her mom and dad. "Well enough" as Sir Hellsing had said, does not fit Jayden's standards of a good explanation. She wants to sleep and forget about all of this. Her mouth hurts terribly from Walter with his wires. He had pulled her piercing all the way out with just a flick of his hand! There are dangerous people in this place, she has concluded, people who know how to kill in dangerous and flashy ways. The rain which had been falling ever since those strange priests had arrived splatters the stones outside and she can hear it all the way underground. But all of these things are _not _the reason why Jayden Dennis cannot sleep. No, the reason is _him. _Argus the Overlord. The dragon who she shares her consciousness with. The problem is that Argus is a bossy S.O.B. He likes getting what he wants, when he wants. Since Jayden had received his spirit, Argus has been pretty tame, mostly talking in dreams…but more and more, the dragon is making himself more a part of her life. Then there was the battle against Alucard and Seras…she can remember the first parts of the battle…but the last bits are very fuzzy.

_The time has come, time, time, time, time, time _a croaking, reptilian Voice speaks in her head. It fills the corridors of her mind with bitter smelling smoke and she can smell a dragon's breath.

"Do…don't wanna…." Jayden mutters, turning over in her bed. Anyone watching this would be slightly amused…and then a bit creeped out…and then stark terrified. Jayden's eyes are closed, but her mouth moves. Then her head will snap to the left and another, hissing voice will come from her lips. But the _real _thriller is that radioactive looking orange light spills from underneath her closed eyelids.

_We must _the voice says in its hissing tongue. _I want more children, Jay, more of them! We gather and gather them._ Then Jayden's head turns to the left, her raven hair scattering on the pillow.s

"Mouth…hurts…" she moans. "Stupid old man…Hellsing…"

_FORGET ABOUT HELLSING!_ Argus commands. _I must begin again, I have been sooooo patient…for soooo long._ What Argus wants, of course, are children to eat. But is _eat _really the right word for it? When Argus takes them, he takes something from them…life-force almost. He takes it and transfers some of it into himself…and most of it to another place, far away. When he was alive, he ate many, many children of various villages. His ravenous gluttony grew over the centuries and he forgot his duty to the Almighty. He pretended to be a god. For that he was struck down…but other than that, Jayden can glimpse no more of her spiritual partner's past, for when she does, a red mist closes over her mind and her throat begins to close up. Argus' way of saying "mind your own beeswax."

Jayden's eyes open. She slowly rises from the bed and lowers herself to the ground. She stands up and shakes her head, looking in a mirror that Walter has affixed to the wall. In the mirror, Jayden Dennis' eyes are a dreadful orange as if she is looking into a radioactive sky. She gasps and looks again. Her eyes have faded back to their jade color.

_Scared you didn't I? _Argus asks and Jayden is surprised to find that the voice does not come from her head. It comes from beside her. Near her is a collection of orange colored sparks. They dance and swirl like a swarm of tiny luminous bugs. It becomes, for a second, the face of a dragon, all snarling mouth and long fangs---and then fades back to the way it was before. From the dancing swarm come a myriad of voices. They are children's voices, then adult voices. Jayden suddenly knows something: that Argus is only _starting _with children…when he gets stronger, he will seek larger prey. She also realizes something that makes her much more afraid. That though she refers to Argus as her "partner" he is really the master and she is pretty much the slave. It _was _fun killing the children, but she doesn't want to do it when she doesn't feel like she has to. Argus was an interactive tool for her to commit murder without getting caught; to feel a dragon's power. But all things come at a price. All things.

_Let us go, Jayden. _

"I don't want to" Jayden says out loud---and then screams. Her stomach and insides are churning and burning with what feels like liquid fire. She can feel the horrid pain working its way up her throat. "S-stop!" she cries, falling to her knees. "My-my stomach's burning up!" she yells.

The horrid orange sparks cluster around her head like a hideous version of one of those halos that Jesus has in His pictures. _Then let me _feed_ Jaybird _he says, referring to a nickname that her mother used to call her long ago. He has pulled that from her mind, most assuredly.

"Alright" she chokes, and instantly the pain is gone…no _more _than _gone _she feels a hundred percent better. Even her mouth has stopped hurting where Walter injured her. When she pushes her tongue against the spot, she finds that it is completely healed, even the piercing hole.

_Is that better, Jaybird? _The Voice of Argus the Overlord asks. _Now let us be on our way…soon Marachute will awake and we will live together again forever. _

"Who's Marachute?" Jayden asks as she picks herself up from the floor. There is no reply from Argus, so she tries to investigate her master's mind. As soon as she makes mental contact, a needle of bright pain drives itself into her brain. She clutches her head in agony. She doesn't like the sound of what the dragon's spirit just said…but there is no time to dwell on that. Jayden feels the power of dragonkind flow through her veins, the Argus tattoo covering her whole upper body a conduit for the Force. Jayden's body becomes covered with orange scales and wings burst from her back. But she is not _entirely _a dragon yet. She is merely a transparent, glowing being that vaguely resembles a dragon. She flies through the walls of the cell and up from the ceiling of Hellsing Manor.

* * *

**London ****9:02 P.M. **

Jolene Zephyr age eighteen is fully and officially drunk. She admits it, revels in the fact. Her parents were snobs, they had expected her to go to college and become a lawyer, or a doctor, one of those things. Like them. Well, news flash! It wasn't going to happen! She dropped out of Westminster two weeks after entering. A few days later, she officially dropped out of her parent's house. Now she lives day by day, occasionally doing special favors for especially rich gentlemen with too much money to spare. Bennett Thomas could have said that she is one of the best at Café Latencer the bar where she now works.

"Jolene!" Lauren calls to her. "Come, have another pop!" They---Lauren, Jolene, and Elva---have been guzzling beer mixed occasionally with other stuff, for hours. Jolene is far beyond the stage of usual staggering drunkenness. Jolene feels most calm and collected.

"Nah, I gotta go" she slurs as she absentmindedly secures her red hair in place. As she stumbles down the stairs, she falls out of the door at the bottom and into the alleyway behind the café. The lights out there haven't been changed in years, but Jolene is so drunk/stoned that she couldn't have told you if it was night or day. She notices that her red bartender's uniform is ripped from the fall. "Gotta get tha fixed" she mutters as she stumbles down the alley way---in the wrong direction. Jolene isn't halfway toward the dead end of the alley, when the sewer cover explodes off its place in the street.

Jolene gazes at this and her mouth hangs open. A silver ribbon of drool falls on the pavement. But Jolene Zephyr isn't afraid. She's excited! As the cover flies off, a orange glowing entity emerges from the sewers.

"Who ahhh youuuu?" Jolene asks, unable to speak intelligibly at all with a mixture of excitement, alcohol and drugs. The creature seizes the bartender and grips her neck in its claws.

**"Ragggrrrrrhhhhhh!" **it screams in her face.

"Go growl somewhere else" Jolene says amiably. It comes out sounding like _Wgo gwol somher glese. _She feels along its neck for a zipper. This monstrous dragon-like being that came up through the sewer must be a man---or woman-- in a mask! In fact, as Jolene looks into the "monster's" crazed eyes, the more she is sure that it is a female. She doesn't stop pulling, either, not until Jayden pulls _her _head off with her strong claws. Or should we say _Argus' _strong claws. And even then, for three minutes after, Jolene's body still feels for a zipper before the hands drop down.

Tomorrow, she will be discovered, and she will be the first adult victim of Argus the Overlord, a dragon spirit that is not _evil…_but a dragon spirit who will do anything to accomplish the promise he made.

**This is a weird chapter. I felt very strange writing it. It's not just the third-person setup either; it just feels totally alien to the rest of this story. But, I wrote it and I guess that's it. Now we can start to see the rationale behind the child-killings. **


	24. Brewing Storm

**Brewing Storm**

**Hellsing Manor, 7:23 A.M Wednesday**

Integra looked at the paper in her hands and once again smiled to herself. No more grisly headlines graced the front page of the _London Times_. The child-killer had been shot dead, as far as the people were concerned, and there were no truly ugly vampire incidents, except for the one about the Buckingham Palace incident, which had been reported as an especially grisly form of terrorism. Integra leaned back in her chair and put a cigar between her teeth. She then began to sort through various papers on the desk. This was the first time in a long while that she could actually begin to sort through papers without being interrupted by a crisis of some kind. She finally found the paper she was looking for.

"Parley Dennis" said Integra, looking at the file. "Let's see…what hospital are you in…"

* * *

Walter was making his usual sweeps through the hallways of the manor, dusting here and there and making sure that pictures were hung the right way. He stopped as he looked at the large Hellsing family portrait. It sat at the end of a long corridor---a corridor down which an extremely unpleasant (to say the least) young man named Jan Valentine had paraded his army of ghouls with the intent of killing everyone in Hellsing Manor. Walter rarely thought about that incident now, but as he traveled along the hall, he was suddenly, violently reminded of it. The hallway looked as though a bomb had gone off in it. The walls were blackened and charred as if they had been swept by fire. The carpet crackled under his loafers. As the butler looked around in growing horror, he saw that the expensive paintings lining the corridor had been dashed to pieces on one side. A large rip extended all the way down one walls as if a large object had dragged through the plaster and stone beneath. The window at the end of the hall had been broken completely as if something had smashed through it and the wall around it was cracked with heat. This section of Hellsing Manor was not used very often, and one could go months without setting foot here. No one would have noticed this damage for a very long time if he hadn't come here, Walter realized.

"What in the name of God went on here…?" he asked to himself as he began setting the pictures back on the burned walls. He began to lift the Hellsing family portrait from the ground---and threw it back on the floor. It was blistering hot! He nudged it over with his foot and saw that the metal frame was glowing like a madman's furnace. Now he noticed the smell, as if there really _had _been a fire here. He smelled smoke and…something else. Something he couldn't name and wasn't sure he wanted to. The smell of bad death. He wondered how the picture had gotten so hot. The damage to this hall had obviously been done some time ago, perhaps hours…so what was so hot that it didn't go out after all that time?

"Forgive me, my lady" he said to himself as he ascended the staircase to the level in which her office was located. "I'm afraid something really _has _come up this time."

* * *

Elaine Zephyr sat in the hospital waiting room, breathing hard. Her husband Arnold put a restraining hand on her arm, but she shook him off. He was upsetting her even more than she already was. If no one touched her, she could pretend that she was in the waiting room of the ICU or the ER, waiting for a doctor to tell her whether her Jolene would live or die, rather than in the frigid waiting room of a morgue for an attendant to tell her what they already knew: that Jolene had been found in an alley behind a sleazy bar called Café Latencer with her head and body in two separate directions. Her head had not been found.

"It's alright" Arnold said. He looked tired and confused and his nose was red. A banker, he was not used to all this activity and seemed to think that it was happening to someone else. Elaine on the other hand _knew _it was happening to her, and she knew that her daughter was gone forever. She wished she had the rotten S.O.B who had killed her daughter…she would grab him and…and…But she had to stop thinking about that, because when she did, her mind flew into a rage and her vision swam in a sea of red mist. She stopped her thinking as the outside doors opened. A young man dressed in jeans and sneakers walked in. He had a scarf wrapped around his head and his black hair grew long over his left eye. He sat down in a group of chairs near where she and Arnold were sitting. She looked at his one visible blue eye…and could not look away. It was as if there was a strange electrical field around this man that had surged out and enveloped her. She tried to pull her gaze away, the muscles in her neck twitched with the effort. But she could not move. She was suddenly aware of the fact that the waiting area was empty of people, except for a single nurse at a station. If this man came over and tried to do something to her and Arnold, there was nothing she could do, the nurse might think he was only a friend or relative trying to comfort them…and by the time they _did _realize something was amiss, and then it would be too late. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She heard a snore behind her, and realized with a mixture of shock and fear that Arnold was sound asleep. He was slumped over in his chair, his glasses sliding down his nose. The young man was now walking over to her, and she could not tell what was going to happen…and she found that she didn't really care. She had lost her _daughter_. Everything felt black now and she could only think of how terribly she and Arnold had reacted when Jolene had announced she was dropping out of Westminster and how they had screamed and snapped. Now she wished she could take it all back.

The man sat down next to her with a _thump _on the old leather of the chair. "Mind if I take a seat, ma'am?" he asked.

"You…" she said. She finally looked away from him. "You're an American, by the way you sound."

"Yep, just flew in not too long ago" he said. He seemed about to smile at her, and then his face changed and assumed an expression of sadness. "If you're in _this _waiting room, then it must mean you've lost someone" he said somberly. Yet, his one blue eye danced with hidden laughter. "Want to…talk about it?" he asked hesitantly. He laid one hand on her shoulder in a compassionate gesture. Elaine shivered; his touch was unexpectedly cold, like he had run his hands under water. He removed his hand quickly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean---"

"No, it's fine" she said. "I didn't mean anything by it. Yes…my daughter, Jolene. She was only eighteen…." She broke off into sobs.

The young man sighed and once again put his arms around Elaine. "Sshhh…it's alright, it's alright…" he whispered in her ear, smoothing her gray hair back. "It's fine."

"N-n-no it's n-no-not!" Elaine cried.

Gray Rogan's smile widened. "Yes it _is_, because your daughter is in a better place now, and I can guarantee you a chance to _thank _the one who sent her there in the highest way possible."

Elaine stiffened and pulled away from the vampire, her tear-red eyes wide with surprise…and a little fear. "Who are you?" she asked. She shook Arnold furiously. "Arnie! Arnie, wake up you stupid sod!"

"He won't wake" Gray said, shaking his head. "He's tired and sad, and it was easy to nudge his mind into falling to sleep, just taking that _extraaaa_ step into dreamland."

"I take back my previous question" Elaine Zephyr. "_What _are you?"

"Someone who can help you" Gray said. "I was in the body locker and I smelled something" he said. "I smelled the scent of a monster we've been pursuing for a long time."

"We?" Elaine asked.

Gray once again leaned down to whisper in her ear. _"Don't talk, just listen" _he said. _"A killer we like to call, the Dragon. It's a terrible monster and its favorite food is human flesh." _

"Government…" Elaine muttered.

_"Oh, your government doesn't know about it at all_" said Gray. _"But I can tell you a group that _does _know about it. Hellsing Agency." _Elaine was not completely sure if she heard the young man's whispered words in her ears, or in her mind.

"Wonderful!" said Elaine. A grin widened on her face, making the frown lines and wrinkles even deeper. "We'll hunt the beast! I'll call my friends, people who knew Jolene---"

_"Shh.." _the ear/mind voice said again. _"Hellsing knows about the monster…because they _created _it. They created it to prey off the population of Great Britain." _

Elaine's eyes narrowed. "Did they now?" she asked. Her fingers dug into the leather armrests, making deep gouges in them. _Did _they now?" her voice rose to a maniacal shriek. "Well…justice has to be done…doesn't it?" she laughed and her eyes were wide and blank…yet filled with a terrible hatred for her daughter's murderers.

_The Dragon is in the form of a young girl named Jayden Dennis…an American like me…you must raid Hellsing Manor and _find _her." _

"How…are they guarded at all?" she asked.

_Oh yes!_ the voice said and now it was completely in her mind. _Guarded indeed! They _are _after all the prominent Hellsing family…but don't worry. With enough people, I'm sure even guards can be overwhelmed. You _do _know a lot of people, don't you? _

"Yes…besides, when people hear this, they'll be out for blood" she said. "But how…will I make them believe?" she asked.

_Oh, have no fear of _that, the voice assured her. _They will_ **believe**_ when you speak to them, they will_ **come**_ when you call them, and they will _**march** _when you tell them to, all the way to Hellsing Manor! _

"All the way!" Elaine said in a screamy little whisper. "All…the…way!!!"

**Yikes! Nooooowwwwww we have troubles, don't we? Jolene Zephyr's murder turned out to be a bigger mistake than anyone could have imagined. Let's see how Integra and the others deal with a big, angry mob of Londoners. **


	25. Guilt Filled Head

**Guild Filled Head **

Integra walked into the admittance room of Dewberry Hospital in downtown London. She attracted glances of people waiting in chairs to talk to the nurse at the attending station. She was dressed in a black suit and wine red tie with a somber black hat with gold trim on the ends. She looked, in other words, like a woman going to a funeral. As Integra neared the station, she caught the glance of the nurse at the desk. The woman's nametag said "Candice". She regarded Integra with a kind of sleepy surprise. Everything stamped into her thirty eight year old face said "I hate my job." She sighed and said "What can I do for you ma'am? Who're you here to see?"

Integra reached into her purse and pulled out a photo of Parley Dennis. "I have come to see this man. His name is Parley Dennis, _former _American diplomat."

Candice's eyes actually opened. "Parley Dennis? Lady are you out of your _mind? _He's only here until they can deport him back to the States or something! Besides" she said, a sneer in her voice, "only _family _members can visit him. And you sure as Hell don't look like family to me."

Integra was aware that people in the waiting room were beginning to stare at them. "Ms. Candice" she said as politely as possible, "I desperately need to see Parley Dennis. If you look in my background I'm sure you will see that I am in no way going to be harm him in any way."

"That's not the point" Candice said. "Mr. Dennis is under security and besides, his wife's visiting him now. Even if he _were _a normal patient, we don't let just anyone come in and see him. Do you even have an _appointment?" _

Integra sighed. "I am in a great hurry. I need to see this man and ask him about something that---"

"Saaaaayyyy….aren't you that Integra Hellsing, what was on the telly talking about you raided the Dennis place?" she peered alarmingly close at Integra. "Maybe you're here to finish him off? Eh? And they _still _haven't found his little girl. Maybe you had something to do with that, huh?"

"I am going to see Parley Dennis" Integra said. "And if you attempt to stop me, I will insure that you lose your job from this hospital this very same day. I would hate to do that to you, but as it seems you hate your job anyway, that wouldn't be _too _much of a bother would it?"

Candice backed up, her eyes wide now. "Y-you can't do that" she said. "I have job security and all that."

"Well, if you want to debate it, you can just try to stop me" Integra said. "I'm ready to sit here all day."

"Go on, and be quick about it" Candice snapped. "At least let me check you for weapons" she said.

"I'm going through" Integra said and walked straight past her. She walked down the rows of rooms until she found the right one. Room 103. She entered it…and closed the door behind her.

* * *

Seras tossed and turned inside her coffin bed. "Damn it, why does everything have to happen to _me _of all people?" she groaned. Never good at sleeping during the day at the best of times, now she was too wired to sit still inside her coffin. She had drank a bit of coffee the previous night and thought nothing of it. She had awakened at 3:24 A.M. and hadn't been able to get back to sleep since then. "Oh of all the stupid….grrrrrrr….." she rolled over, trying to get comfortable. No doubt _Master _was sleeping well in _his _coffin. _He _never had any trouble getting to sleep at night. But her, oh no, not poor, pitiful Seras. Seras was interrupted out of her grumbling thoughts by a strange sound. It reached her sensitive vampire ears all the way through the thick stones of the dungeons and through her coffin. It was an unmistakable sound, a sound she had made several times. It was the sound of a person crying. Seras pressed the button on the inside of the coffin and felt the device rise as it opened. She stepped out, and looked around her sparsely furnished room. She sighed sadly as she saw the packets of blood that lay on the wooden table and went over to them. She was about to put them to her lips when the crying started afresh. Whoever was doing the sobbing, they sounded lonely, forlorn…and most of all, scared to death. Her curiosity aroused, Seras wondered who could be crying like this. Could it be Sir Hellsing? No, it didn't make sense. _Sir Hellsing _break down crying like that? It had taken a decaying zombie of her dead Uncle Richard to make her fall apart, and unless he was wandering the halls of Hellsing Manor right now, Seras didn't think Integra would be turning on the waterworks anytime soon. Then who else was it? Her mind went to Pip or Walter or one of the Wild Geese. Maybe even (God forbid!) Alucard. Then she shook her head. Those were all male candidates and this crying was definitely female. The crying subsided into hoarse chokes and gasps and then stopped…and then started again. Then Seras thought about it and came to another idea.

"Jayden?" she said out loud. Seras felt a chill run down her spine. After the hideous apparition at the Dennis place, she had not set foot in the girl's cell. The memory of that orange dragon had made her wish she had never even gone there. She was afraid of Jayden Dennis and that was that. Let the others laugh, let Master call her a coward, she had seen his face too, and he hadn't been laughing when the monster had appeared. What would have happened if she hadn't attempted to breathe fire, Seras shuddered to think. She and Alucard would probably be rotting strings of meat between the beast's teeth right now. Yet now she was bored, and had nothing else to do, so she opened the door of her room and ventured into the basement hallway.

"J-Jayden?" she asked fearfully. "Are…you alright?" there was no response, but Jayden went on crying. Finally Seras located the cell at the end of the hall, near Alucard's coffin room. Her hand hesitated before the doorknob and she gulped. What if the dragon was in there, _waiting _for her so that it could tear her to ribbons of blood and flesh? If it was just pretending to cry. Forcing those thoughts from her mind, Seras turned the knob with all her might. What she saw was _completely _beyond her expectations.

Jayden lay on her bed, her face down in the covers. She was dressed in a black and purple stripped jacket and some weird denim skirt. She had a pen and pad and what looked like a Hallmark greeting card clutched in one hand. Her body shook with sobs and her black hair was tangled all over the place. Occasionally she would grip a lump in the covers and cry harder.

"Uh….can I come in?" Seras said, feeling like an intruder.

Jayden turned her face to Seras and Seras gasped. Jayden's eyes were not just red from crying. They were a terrible liquid red that looked as if her eyes had gone bloody. Her face was deathly white and blood was running from her mouth. Seras realized with a growing horror that it was because Jayden had bitten herself in several places along her arms and legs. As the young vampire watched, she leaned down and bit a chunk of flesh the size of a quarter from her hand. A spray of blood followed and Jayden began to cry again. Usually bloody sights like this would have had a chance of exciting Seras' bloodlust. Not now. Now it just made her want to throw up all of her guts on the stone floor. But she forced herself closer. "S-stop this right now!" she said in her best commander's voice.

"Wha…what do you want?" Jayden demanded tearfully. "Go away! Just leave me alone! I didn't ask you to c-come here so get out."

Seras went closer, forcing her legs to stop shaking. She was uncomfortably aware of the fact that she did not have a single weapon with her. If Jayden decided to go dragon in this small space, it would be her vampiric strength and stamina against an ancient monster of legend. Not much of a contest here, ladies and gentlemen.

"I want to help you" said Seras. "What have you _done _to yourself? Why have you…what have you been writing?" she asked.

Jayden turned away from Seras. "I…I was writing a get well card to my parents" she said sullenly. "Walter gave me this card…he said he would ask Sir Hellsing to give it to my dad…because she was going to see him…but she just left without even noticing it."

"I'm sure Sir Integra was just…too busy" Seras said, ignoring the cold pit in her stomach. Sir Hellsing could be so cold sometimes!

"B…but that…not why I'm c-c-crying!" Jayden burst into tears again. Seras walked closer until the two of them were inches apart. She put her arms around Jayden's shaking body.

"Shhhh…" she said softly. "I'm here. Tell me, what's wrong."

"How can I?" she moaned. "He's sleeping right now…but when He wakes up, I don't know _what _He'll do next!"

"Who?" Seras asked. She felt the small hairs on the back of her neck stand up, but she continued to speak. "Who will do something? Is it one of the Geese? Did he…did he…?" Seras couldn't bring herself to say it. _Who would _dare? she thought. _Who would _do_ something like that to a _monster?

"I can't!" Jayden gasped. She looked at Seras with her bloody looking eyes, and Seras suddenly realized that they _were _bloody from broken blood vessels from the heavy crying. Blood and tears had run down Jayden's face in a terrible mask.

"Then if you can't tell me…" Seras said softly, stroking her hair. "Show me."

Jayden reached for the lump in the covers and sighed "Promise me, that you will never tell" she pleaded. Her jade eyes were bright with terror. "Seras---that is your name right?---it's getting to much! I can't…I can't control Him anymore. He-He made me do it. I'm the slave and he's the Master! He's Master and I'm slave!" she was babbling now, and spit was flying from her mouth. Seras thought about slapping her to get her to calm down, but she didn't want to risk waking up Whatever Jayden was talking about…and she now had a nasty suspicion about. Besides, it seemed unnecessarily cruel to do such a thing. "Calm down" Seras said. "Now…**show me." **

"Alright, Seras" Jayden said and pulled the thing from the covers.

Seras felt her mouth twitch in a grimace of horror and her throat felt full of screams. Her stomach went rubbery and her legs very heavy. Hanging from its hair by Jayden's hand…was the severed head of Jolene Zephyr.


	26. Chatter about the Past

**Some Chatter about the Past **

Mina walked briskly down the corridor in O'Hare Airport. The Lear Jet would be leaving in half and hour. She had set the deadline and she did not want to be late. They wouldn't leave without her of course, but if they had to make allowances for their leader, it would undermine their impression of her. Where was she headed? Great Britain of course. The situation had escalated far beyond what she would allow. Gray had now made his first decisive move. Raising a mob to attack the Hellsing compound would attract far too much attention. She frowned. This meant that he meant to take this all the way to the bitter end. Well, let him. She would arrive and show him why it did not pay to double cross your Blood Sire.

**Dewberry Hospital, 6:34 P.M.**

Integra entered the room 103 and shut the door behind her. In the room, Parley Dennis lay in a white hospital bed, tubes and hoses connected to him. He didn't seem to be conscious, but that proved to be wrong because he tried to jump when Integra entered. Andrea Dennis, looking thin and worn was sitting in a chair at his bedside. Andrea jumped. "Integra Hellsing!" her face white and scared, she fell back into her chair.

"Yes, me" Integra said grimly. She stood there, dressed in black like the Angel of Death. She adjusted her hat and waited for their shock to wear off before saying what she had to say.

"Wha…what are you doing here?" asked Parley from his bed. He feebly raised his head to see what was going on. "How are you here? I'm not allowed any visitors except my family…"

"I apologize that my man shot you" Integra said. "I take full responsibility for it. Yet, you must understand that you were trying to kill me. Furthermore---"

"Where is Jayden?" Andrea asked. Integra opened her mouth to say something, but Andrea threw herself at her feet. "Please!" the woman begged. Looking closely at her, she realized what a resemblance she bore to Jayden's true form. Looking at the fake face Jayden had before, no one would have believed that they were family. But now she could see the same jade green eyes and playful look. Except now that look had changed to anguished terror. "Please, if you know where my daughter is, you will tell me! I have to see her again, I dream about her daily. Is she dead?" Andrea asked in a quivering voice.

"No" Integra said finally, after a long pause. "But believe me, there are people out there who would see her dead if they had their way." She walked past Andrea and over to Parley. "Parley Dennis" Integra said. "Look at me. We have much to talk about."

Dennis stared stubbornly at the ceiling and would not look at her. "I will not beg, as Andrea sees fit to do, or lower myself to _you, _Hellsing bitch" he snarled. His hands balled into fists under the covers of the bed. "Shooting me, I can forgive, breaking into my house, I can forgive…but what _you_ did…what you did is too much!" he turned to her, and Integra saw that his eyes were filled with hatred. "You sullied my name, told _lies _about us, and **KIDNAPPED MY DAUGHTER!" **his words rose to an angry roar.

"I don't think that is a fair statement of facts" Integra said, keeping her face blank, even though she was shocked by the hot venom in his words. "You instigated this by attacking the children of London."

Andrea suddenly spoke. "Sir Hellsing…if you'd hear us out. Jayden's a good girl, a proper girl and she would never do anything like this by herself." She began to cry. "It's all…all because of that tattoo…it's taking her mind, bit by bit----"

**"Oh NO YOU DON'T!" **Parley roared. "Don't go telling this woman our family secrets! What's in the family _stays in the fucking family do you hear me woman?!" _

"I hear you" Andrea said calmly, even though tears continued to stream down her face. "I hear you, but I am tired of it. Otto Kramer was right. Jayden needs help, Christian help and this woman here's the only one who will help!"

Parley tried to rise out of the bed. Equipment beeped frantically, but he ignored it in his fury. "We NEED that dragon! Nightfall…Gray Rogan and his snotty sister---"

"To Hell with Gray!" shouted Andrea.

"I'm going to---" Parley began, but Integra slapped him across the face. The blow was not strong, but in Parley's weakened condition, it sent him slamming back among the pillows and sheets.

Andrea stood there and began to make strange sounds of horror.She opened her mouth to scream but Integra pulled out a small Glock from her purse and pointed it at Mrs. Dennis' head.

"Sit back in the chair" Integra said coldly. Then she thought about it. "No, better. Get up and tell the nurse outside that you want this door to remain shut, and only opened in dire emergency. I want to hear _everything _you're going to say. I have a feeling this is going to be a whale of a tale and I don't want to miss it. I---" she was interrupted by a small ringing sound. With the gun in one hand, Integra reached in her purse and opened her cell phone.

"What _is _it, Walter?" she snapped. "Did I not say I would be busy at this time? Is it one of the Knights…or is it that Maxwell----"she broke off at the sound of Walter's voice.

"Lady Integra…we have a situation on our hands."

"What is it?" Integra asked.

"An hour ago, Seras found Jayden in her room crying. I'm here now, and the poor girl is still quite distraught…although I would say the term 'poor girl' is not what comes to mind when I saw what was under her sheets. Seras saw it as well."

Integra's stomach clenched. "What was it?" she asked.

"A severed human head. A female's. The eyes…" for a minute, Walter's voice actually faltered and then he controlled himself. "The eyes had been eaten out. And not with dragon's teeth."

Integra felt the hospital rooms begin to tilt and whirl around her. She managed to regain control by biting the inside of her mouth hard. The pain was instant and savage and brought her back to her senses. "What are you doing about it?" she asked and she did not like the faint quality her voice had acquired.

"We are currently searching the _London Times _for any cases of mysterious disappearances last night. This is fairly recent."

"Then why not have Jay---" she glanced at Parley and Andrea. "Then why not have her tell you who and what she did? Or does she not remember?"

Walter was silent for a while. Then, "oh, she _remembers_" he said. "The matter is that she's afraid to tell us, and no amount of coaxing can get it out. You should see her lady. The poor child is scared stiff of something she calls _Him." _

Integra's eyes narrowed. "As you said Walter, the term 'poor child' doesn't spring to mind when I think of this girl."

"What shall we do with her, my lady?" Walter asked, and Integra was shocked to the very core of her being by his tone. Usually Walter asked her what they should do, with the air of always having a plan if the unimaginable day came when Integra said "I don't know". But now, he seemed lost. Even afraid.

"Wait until my arrival" Integra said. "I will be done here shortly." She saw Parley Dennis stiffen at those words and glance at the gun. Good. Let the bastard stew in his fear, Integra thought. She hung up from Walter and looked at Andrea. "Leave the room, Mrs. Dennis." When Andrea moved closer to her husband, Integra sighed. "I say this, not so I can do something to him while you are gone, but to protect you. I have to say some very unpleasant things and…please leave. The two of you may talk about it later, but I will not have your trauma on my conscience." She gestured with the Glock. "Go."

Andrea finally looked at Integra. "I believe you, Integra Hellsing, though I don't know why. I will be back when you're finished." After she left, Integra faced Parley. He had once again begun to stare fixedly at the ceiling. Integra's slap mark glowed red on his face.

"Your daughter" she said. He mumbled something.

"What was that?"

"I won't tell you a thing about Jay" he said.

Integra closed her eyes. Then, with her eyes still closed she said, "Mr. Dennis, your daughter has just ripped the head off of a human female and eaten the eyes…and I know the latter part was _not _done in dragon form."

Parley stiffened and his breathing stopped---but he continued to stare at the ceiling.

"Tell me what you know" Integra implored. "Tell me a way to end this madness. Tell me how to help your daughter, to free her from---whatever is controlling her."

"Not possible" Parley said at last. His gaze did not move from where it was.

"And why is it not possible?" Integra asked.

"How 'bout a swap?" Parley asked.

"What do you mean?" Integra asked him. "What do you mean by a swap?"

Parley chucked softly. "You mean you Brits have never heard of a swap of information before?"

Integra gritted her teeth. "Oh yes, oh yes I have. Someone recently proposed it to me. About this very same issue in fact."

"Iscariot wasn't it?" he asked. "Those goddamn pigs."

Integra's eyes widened behind her glasses. "You…you are _familiar _with Iscariot Section XIII of the Vatican?"

"Sure we are" he said. "They chased us down, along with Nightfall."

"Who is this…nightfall?" Integra asked.

Parley sighed. "When Jayden was born, it was a difficult delivery. Andrea was very near death---so near I feel my heart stop even now. Anyway, during the birthing our families were gathered…Andrea's mother and father and my father. My mother had died during her delivery of me, and I thought of such things as I paced madly around. My father, Albert told me not to worry, that it would be alright. We just…we just had to pray. So we went down the hospital chapel and prayed. Dipped our fingers in holy water and just _begged_ God to let them live." Hours passed…we went down again and dipped our fingers and all that about three times…and that was when…when a strange doctor came in. I didn't know about vampires then…I was so ignorant. I just _knew _something was off about him though. The way he looked, the way he moved, Hell, the way he _smelled._" Anyway this doctor tells me that Andrea and Jayden are going to be fine. When I heard _that _I was so happy that I forgot all about my bad feelings." He shifted in the bed and continued. "So he leads us down this hallway, and its only after a while that I realize he's led us _away_ from the delivery room. 'What's going on?' I demand to him and my father starts the same thing. Soooo…the guy just reaches over and pulls off the top of my dad's head!" Parley gritted his teeth against the horror and anger of the memory. He then turns to me and says 'next!' just like that. So he grabbed me…he struggled, but it was like I was made out of rags. I finally did the one thing I could think. I stuck my finger in his eye." Parley grinned. "_That_ did the trick alright. He staggered back and began to howl and warble and make all sorts of terrible sounds. I saw his eye sink back in its socket and the skin around that side of his face began to wither and burn off like I had thrown acid on his face."

"The holy water" Integra said. "You say you went down to the chapel _three _times and dipped your fingers and prayed? The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. _That's _what got this vampire. You _did _tell me that your father was killed by a vampire disguised as a doctor" she said remembered when she had asked him why he was a hunter.

"Well, then the bastard screams and rants and raves and starts pulling at his face and then---get this, he dives out of the window. Now, this is the fourteenth floor of a hospital. I thought I'd killed the guy whoever---whatever----he was. But I looked down and saw him land without a scratch and stagger off down the parking lot." He shook his head. "They never caught him."

"So you began to hunt vampires to avenge his death" Integra said.

"Right" said Parley. "But I also began to work with the government…and eventually one thing led to another…we found this cave in Uganda. We were helping with a war effort the U.S. wanted to assist…and we had a day off and I decided to spend time hiking. RuwenzoriMountains we had to go to that cave didn't we?!" he seemed to have forgotten that Integra was still in the same room. "That blasted _cave!_ To make a long story short, Jayden became separated from the rest of us…and we were afraid we'd lost her. Then she came stumbling back and she was covered…covered with that tattoo…except it wasn't like it is now…" he said. It was smaller…only on her stomach. It grew…over time…"

Integra nodded, liking this less and less. This sounded like demonic possession of the highest and nastiest order…or if not _demonic _then _dragonish. _"Continue" she said.

"Soon we were fleeing for our lives. The guide had been working for Nightfall. They were scouting out the cave anyway, because they…"

"That name again? What is this nightfall?"

_"Nightfall_" Parley said. "Proper nouns everyone! It's a company in America, led by Mina Harker and staffed by vampires, humans and FREAKS."

_"FREAKS?!" _Integra demanded. "You have those abominations in America?!"

"That's were those damned chips come from" said Parley. "Nightfall is a mega corporation that pretends to be a pharmaceutical company and seems to have its hands in a lot of other enterprises as well…not all of them legal." He scratched his chin. "When I first started killing vamps---I used to go out alone, I didn't want to drag Andy and Jay into it---anyway, when I first started killing the bastards, I occasionally heard whispered rumors of an organization that was the antithesis of Hellsing….a organization _for _midians."

"An organization for vampires?" Integra asked. "How is this possible? Are you serious?"

"Dead serious" Parley said. "Lady Integra, may I be arrogant enough to tell you something that I'm sure will sound bad? You have no idea what you're dealing with. In Britain, you seem to have it easy. You hunt and kill vampires that are mostly alone and weak. In America, the bastards are a lot more organized, and the hunters are a lot less. In the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave…they have vampire _bars _that serve roasted human flesh and hot mulled blood to customers."

Integra felt sick to her stomach. "You're lying. You have no proof---"

"I've been in one."

"Still, what does this Nightfall have to do with Hellsing? I am sorry for the problems in America, and I will certainly speak with the Queen on this, but for the moment I am concerned with the affairs of the British Empire---"

"But you don't understand" Parley said. He was smiling sadly. "I knew you wouldn't."

"If you would _tell _me what you're trying to say…"

"Nightfall wants the power of Ershadar and they're willing to kill anyone they feel gets in the way of that goal. An elite unit of assassins and other thugs called the Gray Men work for the elite of Nightfall. They are led by a man named Gray Rogan who is the same leech who killed my father in front of my very eyes. I know him. His hairstyle has had to change thanks to the injury I gave him seventeen years ago, but I _know _him. And I fear…I fear he's come here. If you truly did kidnap Jayden…then Nightfall's eye is focused on Hellsing now. If that is true, even now they are plotting how to seize her from you."

"What are you---?"

"A man named Otto Kramer helped me while I was in Thailand. We fled there after Jayden received the spirit of Argus, the dragon. He is a German priest, a former Nazi. He helped us flee back to America. He lives in Britain." Parley suddenly lunged forward and grabbed Integra's sleeve. "Please! I know I shame myself in asking this of an enemy, but please make sure that he is alright! If Nightfall finds him…he's outfoxed their plans for other people several times…they'd love to get their fangs in him."

"Who is the leader of this organization?" Integra demanded.

"A woman…a ruthless and cruel woman named…Mina Harker" he said.

Integra felt as if the breath had been punched out of her stomach. All her life she had been brought up on the story of Abraham Van Helsing and how he had fought against the evil No Life King Dracula. Mina Harker…she remembered that name from the story…

"You must go now" he said. "But before you do, there is another, important thing I must tell you. We did not tell Jayden to alter her shape like that. She claims that it was an accident…but I think it was the dragon's spirit…and I think that it is overtaking her mind!"

"I will try to help her" Integra said.

"Good…good…." Parley said as he fell back to the bed. His eyes closed.

"My God…" Integra whispered. "JP…" she said. "Why didn't you tell me about any of this? Why didn't you _tell _me?"


	27. Mob Justice

**Mob Justice **

**Cavel Manor 7:00 P.M.**

The setting sun cast bloody shadows across the sitting room of Cavel manor. Gray and Michelle sat in the shadows, listening to the sounds of their men getting ready. Ready for what was to come tonight.

"How are you Michelle?" asked Gray. "You have the hardest job of all of us in this little escapade. After all, _you're _the one who's preventing Mina from guessing the truth."

Michelle smiled tiredly. "That's true" she said, popping a bubble of gun from her mouth. "But _you're _going to live up to your promise to me about letting me be second in command once you take control of Nightfall." Michelle was a Breaker. Every so often, like once in a blue moon, there would be born a fledgling that could warp, and at times even block their Sire's mental connection. As this was a terrible breach of vampire etiquette, they were called Breakers. Gray knew that Mina had her mental hold on both of them, monitoring their activities daily. She obviously already knew about his plan to overthrow her and take the organization on his own…but Michelle was helping to shake up that little problem. By thinking thoughts that were untrue, Michelle could block Mina's mental channel. Therefore, when she thought the time was right Mina was probably going to attack them in a place where she knew they were weak--- all based on information she had gleaned from Michelle's mind. If this information was wrong, then Mina would be severely surprised when the time came.

"I can do tonight's job" Gray said. "It's not too much trouble."

Michelle grinned, her pink lips pulling back from her fangs. "I'm gonna enjoy tearing Hellsing Manor to bits. The guys you've positioned to watch Parley Dennis says Integra Hellsing's with them. So that means the brains are gone and the body's been left to rot."

Gray smiled at her. "Then I'll just sit here and watch TV---I can't wait for when you come on."

Michelle got up and opened her purse. "Don't worry" she said. "I'll make such big news it'll be on_ all _the channels."

**Café Latancer 7:45 P.M **

Lauren Denip was not usually so gloomy. But since Jolene's death a little while before, she had been feeling nervous and edgy. Work at Café Latancer was tiring, and unpleasant. It was more of a dive than a café, despite its good name. The walls were painted a garish red, and the wooden seats and booths were peeling and smelled bad. The odor of old fried food and beer hung in the air. Waitresses were frequently pinched in inappropriate places by customers, and most of the people who came were hard drinkers who got drunk and then passed out on the tables. Still, Jolene had made it fun. She always had jokes or some kind of witticisms to make a tiring shift go by faster. Lauren brushed her black hair from her face and began to polish a glass. It already long cleaned, she just kept polishing it because she didn't have anything better to do at the moment. The café was full of people as usual; the sparse crowds of hard drinkers hadn't come yet, but they would. Most of them were business people, and people who didn't have steady jobs. They lounged around, talking and arguing. _Yep, that's it. I'm done_ Lauren thought. _I'm quitting right here and now---_

Her thought was interrupted when she saw a woman walk through the door. The chime at the top gave a little tinkle as she entered. Lauren gasped and dropped the glass she'd been cleaning. It was Jolene's mother!

Lauren had heard a lot about Mrs. Elaine Zephyr from Jolene. She had shared sympathy with her friend when she told her of how her mother had yelled and screamed at her when she dropped out. She had always imagined Mrs. Zephyr to be a cold looking woman, dressed in expensive clothes with jewelry and ornaments. Her glasses would have little chains on them and her gray hair would be in a neat bun. The image of a strict and prosperous librarian. What she beheld now was not actually much different from that picture…except for the expression. Mrs. Zephyr's expression was like predatory hawks. It darted this way and that, as if enemies lurked in every corner. Her high heels clicked on the dirty floor of the place. She walked up the bar and sat down.

"W-what can I get you?" asked Lauren. She was surprised to find her voice shaking a bit.

"A small glass of white wine…and a large barrel of Justice" Mrs. Zephyr said coldly.

"Wine I can do…but I don't have _any_ idea what you're saying about justice" said Lauren.

Mrs. Zephyr sighed as if she had expected this. "My daughter" she said, "was just murdered yesterday. I want to drink something hard and…fast…" she said softly. Lauren wondered if the lady had taken something…but she didn't sound high or wigged out, just…quietly insane, if that was even possible. It made Lauren's skin crawl. She poured the drink and after setting it down, moved away from Mrs. Zephyr. Jolene's mother downed the glass in one gulp and sighed. She closed her eyes, and Lauren thought perhaps she had…well, died. Her chest didn't move and neither did any other part of her body.

"Hey…you…okay?" Lauren asked.

Mrs. Zephyr's eyes snapped open with amazing speed and she jumped to her feet. "JUSTICE!" she roared. "That is what I want for us!"

Several customers turned around at the force of the woman's voice. Lauren groaned. Why did _she _have to be the bartender on duty when the crazies came in?

"Hey, pipe it down, bitch!" yelled a man in a wrinkled suit nursing a beer. "Some of us are tryin' to think, ya know?"

"Know?" asked Mrs. Zephyr in a small whisper. _"I'll _tell you what I _know. _I know that all around us, monsters roam and stalk. It gets covered up perhaps…but at the same time….we _know _it happens because occasionally we see the results! Look!" She help up the scene pictures that had been taken of Jolene's body. Customers gagged and some vomited at the sight of the mutilated, headless corpse.

"My…precious daughter was lost to a monster…" Mrs. Zephyr wept. Her eyes flashed with madness and hate. "But I'll have even with those who did it! Yes by God and Jesus I will!" she began to walk around the room. People at their tables shrank away from her when she passed them. It was as if her insanity was a contagion that they were afraid they would pick up if they went to close, that they'd turn into raving lunatics as well.

"Somebody throw her out" someone muttered, but no one made a move toward the gray haired woman in the black dress and heels. She had a dark aura of anger and madness around her, and they could do nothing…nothing except listen to it. She threw her arms in the air and looked up at the cracked, water spotted ceiling. "I will have revenge for my Jolene!" she yelled. "And I know what we can do to stop this from happening to more!" she pointed out the door. "In _this very city,_ there is an organization which claims to protect us from monsters…but they lie! They have sheltered a monster under their roof and it is wreaking havoc upon us! The child killings were not done by human hands! They were at the hands of this Dragon they of Hellsing are hiding! They are the ones who are responsible for the wave of death that has scourged our child population!"

Before anyone could even respond to _this,_ the doors opened again to admit the person who had been following Elaine Zephyr on her trip to Café Latancer. A girl dressed in a pink shirt and jeans and chuck tailors. Her brown hair was tied back in a ponytail. Michelle Rogan clapped. "_Yes! Go Elaine! _That's the way to tell 'em!" she cried. Michelle grabbed Elaine's arm and held it up. "You hear this woman!" she shrieked. "She's right! Hellsing has _got _to be punished for this?_ Don't you agree?" _her blue eyes flashed red.

"She's right!" the people of the café began to chant. "Get justice! Get justice! Get justice!" chairs were pushed back, men and women began to stand and clap their hands to the beat.

"The bastards killed my _daughter!" _Elaine Zephyr shrieked. "Are you going to help me go over there and tear that Hellsing place down, brick by brick?!"

"_YES WE WILL!!" _they chanted in unison.

Lauren Denip felt the fire of anger burn in her blood as well. Jolene had been her _best friend! _Who did these Hellsing people think they _were _anyway? "I don't care if the Pope licks their ass clean!" Lauren heard herself yell. "I say we burn 'em to the ground!"

"Burn 'em down! Burn 'em down! Burn 'em down!" people yelled. Mrs. Zephyr walked over to Lauren.

"Thank you, dear" she said. "You're Lauren Denip, correct?" she asked.

"Yes, yes I am" Lauren said quickly. "I'm so sorry about your loss, Jolene was my best friend too, I'll do anything to help, anything at all."

"Then help me, girl" said Mrs. Zephyr. "We'll burn down that damned manor, and gut every single mother's son of them before hanging their bodies from the street poles!"

"I will!" Lauren whispered and jumped over the bar, landing among the crowd.

"Shall we go then, Mrs. Zephyr?" asked Michelle.

"Yes…I suppose we should" said Mrs. Zephyr. "We can't keep waiting for too long." She looked at Michelle and her eyes lost some of their madness. "You…you helped me somehow…you got them to believe…who are you?"

Michelle's eyes glowed red. "Someone who wants to see the members of Hellsing Agency buried under six feet of dirt. Now come on" she grabbed Elaine's arm and the old madness returned. Mrs. Zephyr shook off her touch.

"Your hands are too cold! What are you doing here girl? Help me march to Hellsing Manor!"

"Of course" said Michelle and stepped out of the way of the mob. She followed behind them, smiling and thinking of the chaos that would soon occur. The mob marched out of the doors of Café Latancer. They went in a straight line, traveling unerringly toward Hellsing Manor. They did not shout or scream as they did in the café. They were deathly silent like a funeral procession. Occasionally people would stop them and ask what they were doing, and a member would explain…and more people would join. Soon, cars had joined in and vans…and more and more people on foot. Even some mountain London Police had joined on horses.

**8:23 P.M. Hellsing Manor. **

"What do you make of it all?" Walter asked Alucard, who stood behind him. the two were in Integra's office, awaiting her return. "Does she really have a chance to be saved?" He had told the No Life King everything that had happened upon his awakening.

Alucard smirked. "Saved? Which one of us is _ever _saved?" he looked up at the ceiling. "But to answer your question, yes." His red eyes flashed. "If I _didn't _think she could be saved, she would already be dead…she and that Dragon thing inside her."

"Forgive me if I am a bit doubtful" said Walter.

Alucard gave a deep chuckle of his usual mocking laughter. "Come now, Angel of Death…you've seen my abilities and don't think I can handle a monster like _her?"_

"You and Ms. Victoria had quite the time at the manor subduing her" Walter pointed out.

"Hnnnn…." Alucard grunted. He walked over to a box that sat on the desk. He opened it and whistled. "So this is it?" he said, looking at the severed head inside. "She did this while we were asleep?"

"What surprises me the most is that neither you, nor Ms. Victoria sensed it" Walter said. "I would have thought that _you_ at least could sense a monster of that power moving through the manor."

Alucard pondered this. "I think" he said, "That is it growing stronger. As this beast grows in strength, it takes more of Jayden's willpower." He folded his arms. "We can't fight this thing." He grinned a kind of smirk that would make anyone other than Walter back up. "No amount of priests or bibles or any other kind of holy power will get through _this." _

"You have never encountered something of this sort" Walter protested. "So how can you say that she is beyond saving?" he didn't particularly _know _Jayden Dennis, but he hated to think of someone being lost to an evil spirit.

Alucard shook his head. "I didn't say she was beyond saving. You did. I said that no amount of holy mumbo jumbo will stop this thing. Jayden has to fight it on her own." He clapped his hands. "_Resignation _is what kills people" he said. "Once they've _rejected _resignation, humans can do anything they want."

"Well!" said Walter. "And all I suppose she needs to do is concentrate really hard then?"

Alucard, no stranger to sarcasm, knew it when he heard it. "I didn't say it would be _that_ easy" he said, beginning to fade away. "But then again, if it _was _so easy to escape the Dragon spirit's clutches…is there any reason for her to gain the _power _she'll surely achieve if she triumphs?" before Walter could add anything, Alucard had faded like fog. Walter sighed and looked outside, waiting for Integra's car. She had said she might be late, but this…Suddenly, the Angel of Death felt a premonition. Something was going to happen tonight. Something very bad. He looked down and saw lights of a car outside the gates. Relieved, he waited for it to enter the driveway…but it didn't. Puzzled, he looked again and saw another car pull up next to it, and then _another. _More followed, then vans…and then the people came. Walter thought he was dreaming. A small army was coming out of London. It was people of all kinds. They were all marching and clustered together. If looked close enough, he could see that some of them were carrying signs. Others were carrying hanging nooses.

"In God's name is this?" he asked. The mob was now so close to the gates that he could read some of the signs. **KILL THE DRAGON!!!** blared from one, another said **HELLSING DIE!!! FILTHY CHILD MURDERERS! TASTE DEATH!**

"This…could be problematic" said Walter as he began to dial Integra's number."Where _are_ you, my lady?" he asked. "There is a mob at the gates!"

**Here it is!! The Wolf---or the mob---is at the gates and Hellsing is going to have its first taste of Nightfall and Alucard gets handy with those guns! And where is Integra in all this? Why hasn't she returned home yet? Last but not least, I'm sure you all recognize Alucard's resignation speech from Vol.3 of Hellsing. See ya all later!**


	28. What Happened to Integra

**What Happened To Integra**

**8:47 P.M. Hellsing Manor **

Pip sat drinking a beer and relaxing on the bed in his room. He liked the accommodations that the Hellsing family gave its fighters-for-hire. The complex in which the Wild Geese spent there time had once been a smaller building where the servants lived in times long passed. It had five floors and each had many bedrooms. The bedroom had been spiffed up and decorated to serve as proper places to sleep. Pip's was green with a dark mahogany floor and a four poster bed made of the same material. He sat on the bed right now, sipping his beer and flipping channels on the TV. There wasn't much on, news mostly. Then he got to a story on a riot that was happening in London and decided to stay on it.

"Zeese British" he muttered to himself. "Zey have _no _self control." He thought of how Sir Hellsing had flown into a rage after he had shot Parley Dennis. She had not spoken to him since, not directly, always passing his group instructions through Seras, Walter, or (shudder, shudder!) Alucard. He looked at the scene that was unfolding on the television. The reporter there was dressed in a rumpled suit and tie and his gray hair was wild as if he had run a great distance and was just catching his breath.

"There is…a terrible scene here tonight" he said. "The mob numbers are _huge. _We haven't been able to interview a single member of this group, they merely ignore us and continue their chanting, no matter _how _many times we ask." He pointed to the howling mob and said, "What is even more disturbing about _this _particular demonstration is that no one knows what it is about…and even more odd, riot police who were dispatched to quell the gathering seem to have actually _joined in!" _the camera focused in one a large group of men and women wearing riot gear and chanting along with the mob.

_Wonder where eet is_ Pip thought distractedly. He drank more beer. _Probably some lord or lady's house that---_ his thoughts were broken off as the reporter continued. "Police have tried to contact Sir Integra Hellsing, but she seems to be unavailable for contact. As the mob has gathered in front of the Hellsing Manor, it seems as if they have some kind of grievance with the Hellsing Agency----"

Pip spit the beer out all over the bed. _"Whaaaaat?!" _he gasped out.

Walter looked out at the mob who was chanting outside the gates.

"Holy shite!" Seras said. "What the Hell's going on here? Why are they at us?"

"I have no idea, Ms. Victoria" said Walter. His voice became cold. "However, I have no intention of letting them get in." He tried the phone again. "Please, Lady Integra, please _pick up!" _he pleaded.

"It's not that bad, right?" Seras said. "I mean, they're outside, right? As long as they don't get on the grounds then it's just an annoyance and not a problem. Besides, this is nothing compared to those two horrid brothers who came last time, right?"

"That may be" said Walter, "but suppose they _do _get in." He pointed to the mob outside. "I know your vampire eyes see far better than my human ones" he said. "So I _know _you will see clearly what I can see from here."

Seras looked. She counted perhaps five hundred protesters and that was no small group. Her eyes widened when she read the signs that they carried and saw the nooses that that some of them carried. Others were armed with various makeshift weapons and some, like the police that had joined, had actual weapons. "They want Jayden" she said quietly.

"Oh, you _just _figured that out, did you Police Girl?" asked Alucard as he floated through the floor. The No Life King's glasses were gone as well as his fedora. His long hair hung down freely to the back of his red coat and an aura of cold seemed to freeze the air around him. He looked out the window at the mob. "They'll get in" he said calmly. "It will only be a matter of _when." _

"T-then what do we do?" Seras asked. "Without Sir Integra, we can't---"

"Then we'll just have to keep trying to contact her, won't we?" Walter interjected. "Ms. Victoria, I assign you the duty of protecting Ms. Jayden's room. Take some of the Wild Geese if you wish for them to help you. Inform Captain Bernadette that his help is urgently required in the main complex."

"Right!" Seras said and sprinted away.

Suddenly the phone began to ring. Quick as a snake seizing a mouse, Walter picked it up and put it to his ear. "Sir Integra, how good to---oh! Sir Islands this is a pleasure…no…I'm sure nothing of that sort is going on _here…_no, the people outside are sadly mistaken…yes, thank you. " He hung up.

"So, the Knights are wise to her location?" Alucard asked. "Nothing stays a secret for long."

"No, I'm afraid it doesn't" said Walter. "But then again, we may hop that Jayden's---" he was cut off again as the phone rang. Walter picked it up again. "Sir Penwood…no…dragons? What are you talking about…no, of course not…I will ask Lady Integra to contact you as soon as she arrives…thank you." He hung up the phone and sighed. "They're going to keep calling, aren't they?" he asked Alucard. The vampire shrugged.

"How should I know?"

Walter sighed impatiently. "Because you _always _seem to know things that no one else should be able to figure out. Furthermore, what about the Dragon spirit? If it awakes now under stress, we'll have an even bigger---" he was interrupted again, this time not by the phone, but by the sound of metal crumpling and tearing.

"Oh, we _already _have far bigger problems" Alucard said.

**8:58 P.M. Hellsing Manor Gates. **

"Heave, ho! Heave, ho!" the strongest men and women in the mob lifted the great metal bulk of a streetlight that they had knocked down and smashed it against the gates again.

"Good job" said Lauren Denip. Her black hair had come loose from its usual way of looking and blew around her face in a mad cloud. "Hit it again!" she cried. Those manning the battering ram hit the gates. The gate was made of iron and reinforced with concrete, but the steel streetlight wasn't a pushover either. It had already dented the gate severely and made it crumple inward at bit. The mob had formed a sort of core at its center. They had set up a small tent that housed the commanders of the group. Lauren was one, Elaine Zephyr was the leader of course…and then there was the mysterious girl, Michelle. No one knew where_ she_ had come from, but she seemed to be one of the most devoted to the cause.

"How's it going?" Michelle asked. "Have you got it yet?"

"No" Lauren said. "But we're almost done. Soon the gate will be done and we'll get in and make them pay!"

Michelle played with a string of her brown hair. Lauren was a bit startled to see Michelle's blue eyes go red…and then the surprise wore off and was replaced with more of that righteous anger that she had felt earlier at Café Latancer. "We can't let them hide the Dragon in a place where we wouldn't be able to find her, correct?" Michelle asked.

"COME ON AND PUSH!!" Lauren yelled out. "WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME!" It worked. The battering ram slammed into the iron gates and right _through _them. The gates fell with a deafening _crash!_ into the driveway of Hellsing Manor. The mob, which had been as silent as a funeral procession for the Pope for all this time, went into a screaming frenzy and charged up the driveway up the hill toward the manor.

**9:00 P.M. Dewberry Hospital, Downtown London. **

Integra walked outside to find a taxi to take her back to Hellsing Manor. She had to find this Otto Kramer and talk to him, warn him that he was in danger. Her head still reeled with the news that Parley Dennis had revealed to her. A vampire organization calling itself Nightfall…led by _Mina Harker _of all people. Integra still didn't know what to make of _that _little bit of info, so she stored it away in her brain for later. She had spent the last few hours talking to both Parley and Andrea about what they had discussed. Integra had finally been forced to include Jayden's mother in the conversation. Far from being traumatized, as Integra feared she would, Andrea had accepted what they had told her---including the part about the severed head. She had grown so pale at that part that Integra thought about calling a nurse, but she had waved her hand and told them to continue. She was not, Integra found, at all surprised by the theory of the tattoo and whatever entity was contained inside it, taking over Jayden's mind, and feeding on her willpower---she said she had suspected that for a long time, before Parley or even Jayden herself. Integra once again promised to do whatever she could to help the girl---but there was a catch. Integra had insisted that if she _did _save Jayden, and get this whole mess cleaned up, then Jayden had to become part of Hellsing and they had to go back to America alone.

Why _had _she done that? Integra didn't really know herself. It just seemed so _right _to say, so she had said it. It was like the time when she had confronted Jayden at Dennis manor with Seras. She had felt as if someone, or something was pushing her and she had obeyed. It was like that then. Parley and Andrea had refused, but eventually said they would _think _about it. That was fine with her. Integra stopped and sat on a bus stop bench. She did not mean to catch the bus; she hated them and they were dirty and smelly. She just wanted to rest and gather her thoughts. How was she going to put all of this in writing? She _had _to tell the Queen now; this was no longer a matter of grappling with Section XIII over custody of Jayden. This now concerned vampires. _It always goes back to the midians, doesn't it? _she thought to herself. Getting up, Integra brushed herself off and tried to clear the feeling out of her head. She didn't know what it was, this vague dread. She had a distinct feeling that something was terribly wrong, but she could not put her finger directly on it. She walked on. She had only gone a few blocks when she noticed that she was being followed. There were ten of them, she counted, five men and five women, and equal gender set. They were young; most of them looked to be in their late twenties or early thirties and they were wearing various camouflage outfits and several wearing handkerchiefs over their heads. At first she had not noticed that they were following her and in that lay the reason they had gotten this close in the first place. Integra experimented and walked off onto a less crowded street. Sure enough, she saw, out of the corner of her eye, the group followed her. Not to close and not too far. But always there consistently. She did not think they were muggers; her mind jumped right over that possibility. If they had been the ordinary breed of thug, they would have just attacked her right then and there…no, they were most definitely paramilitary people of some kind, although why they were tracking her she had no idea. _Could they be agents of Nightfall? _Integra thought nervously. She was suddenly aware of two facts: One, she had not brought any weapon with her to the hospital except for the small Glock and that was not equipped with silver bullets. Second, she was on a street that was completely empty of people and poorly lit. Both proved advantageous to the enemy. Integra began to whistle, and reached into her purse. She felt her fingers close around the handle of the Glock and mentally sighed in relief. A bad weapon was still a _weapon_.

"Hey, Miss!" one of the men behind her yelled. They began to pick up the pace. They moved far too quickly for humans, Integra noted. They were most definitely vampires, and they sounded American, which increased her suspicion that they were of Nightfall. The group quickly overtook her.

"Can I help you?" Integra asked calmly. Her heart beat wildly in her chest. She only hoped that her midian harassers couldn't hear it.

"We were just wondering something" asked a young woman with short red hair. The kerchief around her head was gray.

_A group of assassins and other thugs called the Gray Men_ Integra thought. "What is that?" she asked. "It's very late and I would like to be getting home. I am late for a very important appointment. So, if you have a question, please ask it and let me answer it and be gone."

"We were wondering whether you've seen a dog around?" she asked.

"What?" Integra asked. Why were vampires asking her about a _dog_? The entire situation seemed so unreal that the very air seemed to shimmer like a dream.

"You know a dog" said one of the others. He was a smiling guy with a large scar that crossed his forehead and disappeared into his hair.

_Harry Potter, anyone? _Integra thought and had to keep herself from laughing. _That _would insure her death at the hands of these monsters.

"English Bull Terrier" said the woman with the red hair. "Answers to the name 'Integra' thought sometimes we call her Integral Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing. She likes to steal things though and bury them. She recently stole something from Nightfall ltd. And we're the dogs sent to get it back."

"I---" Integra's words were cut off as another woman kicked her in the side, the force sending her flying four feet down the street. Integra slammed into the gutter and lay there for a moment. The kick had broken a few ribs, she knew and she could already feel the pain spreading like a fire throughout her side.

"What do you want?" she wheezed, pulling herself to her feet.

"To kill you" answered one of them simply.

"Kill me, eh?" Integra asked, dropping her purse to the street as she drew the Glock. "Well let me tell you a little secret, freaks" she said. "My family has been fighting your filthy kind for nigh _hundreds _of years." She pointed the Glock at the young red haired woman who seemed to be their leader. "I will not be brought down by the likes of _you!" _she fired at them. The vampires scattered, flying into the shadows. Integra threw herself flat as a hail of bullets flew over her head. _I've got to get out of here_ she thought. _I couldn't fight all ten of them; even of I didn't have broken ribs and a gun that was equipped with silver bullets! _ She began to crawl to the end of the street toward the sight of lights and the sound of speeding cars. Integra had just reached it, when one of her assailants gripped her long hair and threw her into the wall. _Hair is a great handhold in a battle. That is why it is better to cut it short_ her father had once said, but she could not bear to part with her flowing, luxuriant hair. It was one of the few tips of his that she had never followed. Now she was paying for it, and might pay for it with her life.

"Thought you could get away, did you?" the scarface she dubbed Harry Potter Man raged in her face. His breath stank of old, stale blood and she gagged. He struck her face, shattering her glasses. Shards cut her cheeks and her vision immediately went blurry, robbed of what it needed to be corrected.

"Don't kill her yet" said the red haired woman.

"Yeah" said another man. He leered at Integra. "We'll take our time _draining _you, and then let you stagger around as a ghoul for a while before we put you out of your misery!"

"…..I am a virgin" Integra replied coldly.

There was muttering among the group. Harry Potter Man giggled. "Then I guess we'll have to _do _something about that, won't we?" he said. To Integra's horror he began to pull down his pants. "Don't worry" he said. "You can trust old Harry" he said. If the situation hadn't been so bad, she would have laughed. His name _was _Harry! "Oh, you can _trust_ old Harry…he isn't going to hurt you _too _bad." The others howled with laughter. "You'll feel more pleasure than paiaaaaaooooooaaaahhhhhh!" he screamed as a blade punctured his throat with a hollow _crack_ing sound. The gurgling vampire fell to his knees and then fell facedown on the ground, dead.

"Who did that?" asked the red haired woman. She broke off in a howl of agony as a swarm of bayonets buried themselves in her chest, stomach and neck. A small one went straight into her left eye. She dropped to the ground instantly.

"Though I walk through the Valley in the Shadow O' Death, I will fear no evil" a thick Irish accented voice said from the beginning of the street. The vampires turned to see a tall figure wearing a long coat stalking toward them. His large hands were filled with gleaming silver blades.

"You…you're from Iscariot!" one of the vampires asked. "What do you think you're---" his head exploded and his body dropped to the floor.

"Ve didn't say you could talk, did ve?" asked German woman wielding two guns. She pointed them at the assemblage of vampires.

"D…don't just _stand _there you assholes! They're attacking us! Shoot them down!" The vampires pulled out their guns and let go with a burst of fire at the members of Section XIII.

Anderson stepped in front of Heinkel. The bullets tore into the Judas-Priest's coat and blood flew through the air. But when the smoke cleared, the man was unharmed, save for a ripped coat. "And what do ye think…ye can do to _me _with such little toys?" he asked. They gasped in horror and began to run toward the opposite end away from the Iscariot members. "Sssssss….." Anderson snarled as he leapt among them.

"He's…he's a regenerator----ahhhhh" one of the Gray Men screeched before Father Alexander Anderson's bayonet found his heart.

"Are you hurt, Sir Hellsing?" asked Heinkel. She went to help Integra to stand, but she pulled away.

"I am quite fine, without Iscariot to help me" Integra said. "What are you doing here? On another errand for Maxwell? How did you find me?" she demanded.

"That's the last o' them" Anderson said as he looked at the mound of bodies.

"Ve vere just in the area, und we heard someone being attacked. Ve had no idea it vas _you." _It was a lie and Integra knew it, but she was too tired and in too much pain to really argue with them. She put the Glock in her pocket. Anderson aside, she could handle this woman if their intentions proved to be hostile.

"So…"Anderson asked, looming over her. "Where do ye intend to go now?"

Integra reached into her suit jacket pocked with fingers that only trembled slightly. "The place I began this madness" she said. "My home."


	29. Mob Massacre

**Mob Massacre**

**9:23 P.M. Hellsing Manor **

"WE WANT JAYDEN! YES WE DO! KILL THE DRAGON! YES YOU MUST!" The protestors chanted this over and over again as they stood on the lawn of Hellsing Manor.

"This is unreal" said one of the Wild Geese.

"Tell me about it" said another. "I've never seen---ahhh!" he said as a broken bottle flew past his head and shattered on the patio. "Damn it! Now they're throwing stuff!"

In his room, Pip was getting dressed for battle. He slipped on a bullet proof vest and pulled out several guns and began to load them. Ammunition boxes were scattered all over the floor and bed. The TV was still on, blaring news about the riot at Hellsing Manor. "The crowds have now broken through the gates! Our helicopter news crew has footage of them gathering on the grounds. They are currently throwing glass, stones, and other things at the guards outside who are trying to get the crowds to disperse!"

"Yep, zat's us" Pip muttered.

"Wait!" said the voice on TV. "They're doing something now! They seem to have begun throwing Molotov Cocktails and---" there was a _thud! _and the soldiers sleeping complex shook. Pip saw an orange tongue of fire leap up from in front of the main manor.

"Merde!" Pip swore. He began to get ready faster, hoping that he didn't forget anything important in his haste. "For the love of all zat's…zhis is _crazy!" _he growled to himself. "Grrr…but they did _pay _us and all…good enough!" then one of the windows on the ground floor of the place where the Wild Geese slept and lived shattered and he heard angry voices. Then he heard something he _really _didn't want to hear. The fast rattle of small arms fire. There were screams of pain and anger and another explosion sounded from Hellsing Manor. This one sounded worse than the other one and much louder. He wondered what was going on out there…and whether it would involve him or not. Because he had a sinking suspicion that he was going to have his hands full this time.

**Hellsing Manor, 9:32 P.M.**

Seras flew down the dungeon stairs, taking the wet, slimy steps four at a time. "Protect Jayden, protect Jayden" she chanted to herself over and over. She reached the hallway and took off running down it. She ran toward Jayden's door. When she arrived, her hand hesitated at the doorknob. What if the Dragon _was _waiting this time? This time it would have her flesh…Seras shook her head to get rid of those thoughts. Her eyes flashed red and she pulled as hard as she could. The stainless steel door was ripped off its hinges and flew behind the young fledgling. She ran into the room, expecting to defend herself against the worst. She was surprised.

Jayden Dennis was sitting on her bed in the same clothes that Seras had left her in crying. Her self-inflicted wounds were bandaged and she was bouncing back and fourth, listening to an iPod (it had been in her pocket when they took her from her house) and singing along to an Uffie song.

"_Jayden!" _Seras yelled at her. Jayden looked at Seras and turned the iPod off.

"What _is _it this time?" she asked. "I'm trying to get myself calmed down. Can't I at least listen to a little music? If I have to be imprisoned here, away from my parents and friends, can't I---"

"Shut your trap, you spoiled little bitch!" Seras snarled. "There's an angry mob on the manor grounds and they want to rip you to pieces! I'm supposed to be protecting you, so get up and get moving!" Seras didn't know why she was so angry. Some of it was the stress of the moment, another part was the anger she felt at Jayden for all the children that she and her spiritual master had killed. Jayden got to her bare feet and quickly put on shoes.

"A mob?" Jayden asked. "Where are they?" the answer came with another loud explosion that sounded much closer---like inside the manor itself.

Seras listened closely. Then she gritted her teeth. "They're inside" she said. "And they're upstairs. "We can't go back up there."

"Then what'll we do?" Jayden asked. "You said you're supposed to _protect _me, and yet you don't know how to get out of this?"

"Shut it!" Seras snapped. "I know what to do. We're going to stop in my room for a minute and get some weapons. Then we'll use the air-vents to reach the council room where the Roundtable Knights usually meet. That's what we did when the Valentine Brothers attacked, and these guys are _no _Valentine Brothers. It'll be simple. Walter and Master will scare them off. It'll be over quick, you'll see!" Seras smiled and motioned for Jayden to follow.

The mob slammed the doors of the Hellsing Manor open. The Wild Geese who were on the front steps lay dead, trampled and beaten to death, their limbs twisted and broken. The group that charged into the front hall was made up of men, women and children. There were about thirty of them. The rest of the mob was still outside attacking the other sides of the manor.

"Alright you Hellsing bastards!" screamed a balding, gray haired man who looked like a high school principal. "Where are you hiding the Dragon?"

"Spread out and find them" muttered a boy in a school uniform. "We'll kill it and anyone with it!" the group of thirty spread out through the front hall and toward the staircase that led up to the upper levels.

"Cold" said a middle aged man in a jogging suit. He shivered. Then the others began to shiver as well. Soon they could see their breath.

"Must like to keep it chilly in here" said one of the customers from Café Latancer.

"**Get out of this house" **said a voice from the stairs. They all looked up to see a man in a long red coat and fedora hat walking down toward them. His eyes glowed red. He cracked his knuckles as he descended toward the crowd. "**Get away from this place." **

The man in the jogging suit pulled a Desert Eagle out of his pocket. "Get out of the way, wanker!" he snarled. "Or you'll get so many holes, you'll put Swiss Cheese to shame!"

"**I said leave this place and you may live" **the man said and now stood on the last step.

"_You_ get out!" the jogging suit man said and fired.

If anyone had been left alive, no one would have believed them anyway. The red coated man launched himself off the landing. He did not fall, merely floated, his long coat spreading out like wings behind him. "_**You think…that you can kill a monster**_**?" **he asked mockingly. His voice echoed above them. _"__**What kills a monster is always a man…and you are nothing more than pawns.**_**" **He descended among the ground and lashed out with his hand. The jogging suit man's head was torn off and hurled through a widow. _"__**One" **_the man said.

"Ahhhhhhh!" screamed the boy with the school uniform. He tired to run, but the red coated man grabbed his neck and bit into it, the force half severing his head. As they watched in horror he gulped down the blood that spurted out. He then threw the body into the group. _**"Two." **_He smiled at them, revealing a mouth crammed with needle sharp teeth that glinted red with blood. He ran forward and swung his arm, cutting several people in half.

"Ahhhh!"

"No, please Nooooooo!"

"Guhhhh!"

Alucard charged them, biting some apart, cutting others to ribbons with his bare hands. He grabbed two fleeing women and broke their heads together. He showed no mercy, paid no attention to screams for God to deliver. They had invaded the territory of a No Life King, and they would pay the price.

Screams echoed from front hall as Walter stood in Integra's office. He began to dial her cell number, hoping, _praying _that one more time he could reach her.

**Near Hellsing Manor 9:34 P.M. **

Integra walked alongside Father Anderson and Heinkel. She said nothing and they said nothing to her. They were all silent and thinking their own private thoughts. Integra kept one hand in her pocket on the Glock. _What are they _really_ planning?_ she wondered. _What is _Maxwell _really planning? _Her thoughts were interrupted by a ringing from her cell phone. "Hello?" she asked.

"Lady Integra, thank God!" Walter said. Integra felt her stomach sink at his tone. It was not the usual calm Walter who always answered the phone. It was a fearful man, who realizes he is alone to fight a terrible battle.

"What is going on?" Integra asked. She suddenly wondered whether or not Alucard had gotten loose or not. Then she dismissed the idea. No, if _that _horror had happened, then those at Hellsing Manor would already be dead.

"We have terrible trouble, my lady" Walter said. "During your absence, a mob has leveled the gates and is now on the manor grounds, and within the manor itself!"

"A _mob?" _Integra asked. "How did this happen?" she demanded. "What is going on there?"

"I'm not truly sure myself" Walter said, "But the mob knows about Jayden and wishes her dead. They have come here with the hope of lynching her and perhaps all who live in Hellsing Manor."

Integra suddenly thought of how she had been waylaid by the Gray Men and what was happening now. She smiled grimly. "Oh, how _brilliantly _planned" she said, ignoring the curious looks Heinkel and Anderson were giving her, not to mention passerby. "I suppose I underestimated the speed in which these Americans worked." She thought for a minute and asked. "How bad is it?"

Walter sighed before answering. "Truly, it is not the best situation. Several of the Wild Geese have already been killed and they are under attack at their compound on the grounds and so most are unable to assist us. Ms. Victoria is with Jayden right now. And as for----"

Walter jumped as Alucard appeared next to him. The vampire's fedora was gone and his hair blew around his head in a phantom wind. His eyes glowed an evil red. There was blood smeared all over his mouth and face, and his gloves were sodden and dripping with it. "Hello, Walter" he said.

"What _is _it Walter?" asked Integra from the phone.

Alucard held out his hand. With a sigh, Walter passed him the phone. "Hello, Ms. Director" Alucard said.

Integra bit her lip. "What happened? You sound all too happy about this. Explain, Servant." Alucard's voice drifted, not out of the phone in her hand, but in her head.

_A group of the fools attempted to break into the hall and find Jayden. _

"And what did you…do with them?" Integra asked, already knowing the answer.

_I killed them._ Alucard's mental voice was somber, but at the same time alights with glee. _I exterminated them down to every last man and woman. But that's not nearly all of them. Thirty people lie dead on the floor of the front hall. There are over five hundred mob members. So Integra, _give me your orders.

Integra's breath locked, cold and dim in her chest. "I…." she muttered.

_The people who are controlling the mob, the ringleaders, are probably somewhere out there…they won't be coming in themselves. But these fools on the other hand, these typical, ignorant humans…they will come again and again and I will slaughter every last _one_ of them._ So what are your orders, Miss Director?"

"Pass the phone back to Walter" said Integra.

"Hello, my lady. I---"

"How bad is it?" Integra demanded. "Walter, tell me can this be solved peacefully?"

"I am not sure, my lady. It will be several hours before the military police can arrive and quell this insanity. And even then, I have my doubts…the local riot police who came to stop this became part of the mob!"

Integra felt a chill go down her spine. "Nightfall" she whispered.

"What?" asked Walter.

"Nothing" Integra said. "So what does this mean?"

"It means that we will have to dig in our heels until they either loose interest, or the police come and stop them" Walter said, but his tone let Integra know that he didn't believe either of those things was going to happen. Integra felt a flash of anger. And that anger grew into a bonfire.

"Dig in? _Dig in our heels?_ For _this _rabble? I think not!" Integra snapped. "Give the phone to Alucard" she said.

"Lady Integra, I think---"

_"Give the phone to Alucard, butler!" _she ordered. There was silence and then Alucard was back on the phone.

_So what are your orders, Integra? _Alucard asked.

"You…have only one order, Servant" Integra said grimly. "Kill, kill, and _kill_, until either they give up…or none are left alive."

Integra could just see the No Life King grinning from ear to ear. "Ah ha ha ha" he laughed. _"That's _what I wanted to hear from your lips, Miss Director. Very well then. I'm going out there to clean the house."

Integra disconnected the call before the vampire had a chance to gloat. It made her sick what she had done; ordering the deaths of many innocent people.

"Vhat vas _that_ all about?" Heinkel asked.

"Never you mind" Integra said. "I have to get to my home as fast a possible!"

**Mob Command Center 9:46 P.M. **

The large tent that functioned as the command center for the mob had originally belonged to a couple who were hiking across Europe. They had joined the mob and had donated their tent to the cause. Inside a small card table was set up. Elaine Zephyr and Lauren were standing, listening to the screams that emanated from the manor.

"It's the Dragon" breathed Mrs. Zephyr. "I know it is! It's gotten to more brave souls, but we shall avenge them!"

"Yes, yes" said Michelle Rogan. Her feet were up on the table and she was smoking a cigarette. "Please _do _remember to avenge your daughter Mrs. Zephyr. "After all, she's the reason we're doing this. We'll have to send more people in." Michelle thought for a minute. "They're probably keeping it in the dungeons with the…other stuff they keep down there. _That's _our goal. The dungeons are where Jayden Dennis resides."

**Council Room 9:47 P.M.**

Seras and Jayden sat on the long table that usually hosted the meetings of the Roundtable Knights. "What do you want to do?" Jayden asked.

"I don't know" said Seras, distractedly cleaning her Harkonnen cannon. The mob had not made any moves that she could see. There had been an incident while they were navigating the air-vents in which Seras and Jayden had heard awful screams coming from somewhere below, but they hadn't heard anything since. Seras suspected that her Master had to do with the screams.

Jayden began to shift from side to side.

"Are you okay?" Seras asked.

"No…" Jayden replied faintly. "It's…_He's _waking up. I can't keep him calm for too much longer. It hurts my head" she whimpered.

"Sometimes we have to do things we don't want" said Seras. She placed her hand on Jayden's arm. "So keep this Dragon calm a bit longer, because we're going to be in for some bad stuff…I can tell."

**Hellsing Manor 9:58 P.M. **

The mob roared once again into the manor. It was easier the second time, because the men guarding it were all dead. This group was made mostly out of riot police who had joined and ordinary, if well armed, citizens. They carried Glocks, Desert Eagles, and rifles and shotguns. The gathering was smaller this time, only twenty one people.

"Down there!" said one of the mob members, waving his nightstick. "We'll get it now, don't you believe and red coated guardian is damned!" they charged forward down the stairs to the dungeons. They carried their hate filled signs in one hand and their weapons in the other.

The dungeon hall was filled with men's snarling and ripping open doors. Finally they reached a room which had no door; it had been torn off its hinges. The room was dark and silent.

"Alright" said one of the men. "I don't think this Dragon thing knows we're out there, so we'll rush into the room take it by surprise!"

"Or maybe it does and we're just falling into a trap" suggested another. He received glares from his fellow mob members.

"Sorry!" he said. "It's just that I'm nervous. Can we kill this thing?"

One of them, a grizzled policeman snapped "We'll kill it or die trying. That little bitch killed my grandson…I'm not letting that go unpunished!"

"Then lets' stop talking and do it!" they charged toward the dark room. "Jayden Dennis, eat this!" they all yelled, firing the guns into the darkness. Finally no ammo was left.

"I…think we got it" said one of them. "I really think we---"

And then the No Life King was among them. Alucard walked through the twenty one mob members as if he didn't see them at all. The vampire's red coat brushed them and his long hair flew out around his face in a black halo. In one hand he held the Cassul and in the other he held the Jackal.

"T-t-the Dragon's guardian!" said one of the men. His face had gone gray with fear.

_**"No"**_said Alucard, pointing his guns at them. _**"That would be my fledgling, Seras." **_He fired a shot and the man who had spoken of his grandson was hurled into the wall, his chest caved in like a crumpled paper cup. He dropped to the floor.

"Ahhhh…run, let's go!" they screamed and ran. Alucard merely walked after them, he did not bother to chase them…they wouldn't get far.

He fired again and another mob member dropped to the floor, dead.

"We----we gotta get out of here! He's a goddamn _monster!" _screamed a man right before Alucard blew his stomach open with the Jackal. Blood spurted up and spattered the walls and floors.

"Shoot him, shoot him!" one man stayed behind, firing at Alucard while the others ran for the stairs. Alucard leaped in the air over the bullets and, as the other watched transfixed with horror, the No Life King latched onto the man's throat and pulled him into the air with his jaws. The lifeless body flew through a concrete wall. The vampire turned to them, and more than one peed his pants. The vampire's eyes glowed so red in his pallid face that they looked like windows into Hell. His mouth was smeared and stained with blood, as were his needle teeth that showed in a hideous parody of a grin.

"Hurry up! He's coming, let's get out of here!"

"Damn it! It's turning into fucking Hell here! Are you sure _this _guy's not the Dragon?!" these shouts rang out as the desperate people ran toward into the front hall. They turned back and looked at the darkness that the stairs led down to. "H-hey guys" said one of them. "Something's not right!"

"Hurry up and ru-aaahhhhh!" this man screamed as a tendril of the darkness reached out---_reached out! ---_and pulled his body apart with a flick. Red eyes began to open in the darkness where they had once been and soon a mass of shadow began to rise up the stairs like water. Moaning and crying in fear, the unfortunate members of the mob tired to escape, but it was no use. They heard laughter behind them and a voice saying something that made no sense. _**"Control Art Restriction Level Two…**_**released." ** The horrible entity began to envelope the people on the stairs and soon, there was only one left.

"No…no…shit! What the fuck _is _this?!" he yelled, clutching his side where Alucard had shot him. The dark mass writhed and twisted in front of him, its many red eyes glowing. Then it parted like dark water and a figure rose smoothly from it, its white gloved hands spread wide. It was the No Life King dressed in a strange leather suit with many straps and buckles on it. The No Life King regarded the man with its flaming red eyes and smiled.

"_No! Please no, oh God dead God I don't want to die, oh please---" _Alucard threw him into the air and his screaming stopped as the vampire impaled him upon his hand which he stuck into the air.

"The house…is now clean" Alucard said, grinning and licking the blood of his lips. His shadows enclosed his body and when they did, he was once more dressed in his fedora, sunglasses and long red coat.

**I have to say that I felt a bit sorry for the members of the mob, once I started thinking about it. I mean, they were tricked, right? I felt that way about the Hotel Rio incident to. My only consolation was that Pip killed the men who tricked the people who came in. Anyway, how was that for a massacre? Don't miss the next chapter in which Alucard gets into a fight with Michelle and after that…more trouble with Iscariot. See you next time.**


	30. Stunning Conclusion

**Stunning Conclusion**

**10:00 P.M. Hellsing Manor Gates. **

"What's going on?" asked the child of one of the mob members. She tugged on her mother's dress. "Mama! Did they kill the Dragon yet?"

"Shush" said her mother. "I don't know if they did or not. We---" there was a loud crash as all the windows in Hellsing Manor suddenly blew out. The mob was now screaming in horror. Out of the windows flew bodies---the bodies of the men who had gone in and the previous group that had come before them.

"What _is _this?" screamed a news reporter who was gazing at the spectacle in awe and terror.

"Forget about that, just film it!" screamed another one, smoothing her hair back to look good on television. Then there was a loud, echoing _boom_ as the doors of Hellsing Manor flew outward and the monster walked down the stairs, his long red coat trailing behind him. Alucard faced the mob. His eyes, horribly red, focused on all of them, seeming to mark their souls forever. His wide grin split his face from ear to ear. _**"Come then" **_he said. _**"Enter my house again, if you dare!" **_

The people had backed up and were muttering and some were crying. They had dropped their signs calling for Jayden's death and were huddled around each other. There were so many of them that Alucard knew if he killed all of them the grounds of Hellsing Manor would be stained red with blood for a very long time. But he had not come to do that at all. He had another purpose. He smelled the leader. "Aright" he said. "Come out, come out wherever you are" he said. He drew the Cassul and Jackal. "Or will I have to slaughter _more _of you?" the crowd shivered and then parted. A girl walked forward. She looked to be about fifteen and was wearing a pink shirt and jeans. She popped a bubble of gum.

"Well!" she said. She looked around at the piles of bodies. "I guess it didn't go too well for _them, _now did it?" she asked. Then she smiled. "But of course, you _are _the super-vampire Alucard. I wouldn't have expected them to reach Jayden Dennis while _you're _protecting her."

"Enough talk" Alucard said, leveling the Cassul at her. "Who are you, and why have you stirred up this pitiful rabble? How much do you know about Jayden?"

"My name is Michelle Rogan…and as for how much I know about Dennis, I know she has the Dragon spirit of Argus the Overlord inside her." The girl smiled. "Come, Alucard…as a fellow vampire you must _hate _working for those humans…just give her to us. It'll be a repayment for all those you've killed."

Alucard laughed a short, bitter bark. "Repayment? Ha! I care no more for your kind of vampire than I care for the humans around me." He aimed the Jackal at her as well as the Cassul. "I do however have my orders…which are to kill until you all give up."

Michelle shrugged. "Fine then. I guess there's no reasoning with you. You're just a little jester, a puppet of the humans!" She drew a small plastic knife out of her pocket and made cuts in the middle of all her fingers. As the drops of blood fell from the wounds, they turned white and began to float around her in a circle. Alucard stared at these. One of the white drops turned white and grew long and thin. It resembled a boomerang, a long white one. It was about five feet tall. "Your time as number one has come to an end, Alucard" Michelle said. "You may be powerful, but there are some things that can kill even you. Jayden will be captured and you along with Hellsing will be marked down as another pitiful group of half-assed hunters who got in our way…in Nightfall's way." She waved her hand and the boomerang flew up the steps at Alucard. The vampire jumped over it and it exploded, tearing through the front hallway. Alucard fired his guns at Micelle, but she dodged the bullets. The stray shots tore into the crowd, killing several people. Michelle accelerated her speed and was soon a blur, running across the grounds. Alucard went faster himself and caught up with her. He fired at her and she dodged again.

"Have some of _this, _Alucard!" she said as she hurled a pair of blood boomerangs. Alucard evaded them and the large white objects flew into the mob. There were screams and then a shattering explosion as it cut apart the gas tank of someone's car. Alucard fired again and this time blew Michelle's head off. The headless corpse staggered around for a minute and then started to fall---and then disintegrated into a puddle of purple light.

"_What?!" _Alucard gasped and then he was blown up from behind as another blood-boomerang hit him in the back. He fell facedown to the concrete driveway. "What…was that?" he asked. A cluster of the white drops coalesced into Michelle, her clothes and hair perfectly unruffled.

"Checkmate, Alucard" she said. A swarm of small white blood-boomerangs formed above Alucard and then descended upon him. There was another blast of force and then all that was left was a crater. "And _that's _that" Michelle said. "Gray was wrong. He said it would---" she suddenly caught sight of a dark figure on the front of Hellsing Manor.

"Not fast enough, little girl!" Alucard said as he bolted up the roof.

"You won't get away, puppet!" she snarled and leaped onto the wall and ran after him.

Alucard jumped onto a balcony used for teatime and other parties. He jumped on the table and fired at Michelle as she jumped up into the air. The vampire dodged the bullets and fired three blood-boomerangs at Alucard.

"Arrrgh!" Alucard said as one of them cut off his arm. Michelle's Chuck Taylor shoes slammed into his chest and sent him shattering through one of the plate glass windows of the manor.

"Ha ha! It seems as if the trash-man of the Roundtable Knights is just a big fraud! I don't know how you killed all of those vampires that they say you did. Could they have just enhanced your record to strike fear into---huh? Damn it!" a large bulletlike projectile slammed past her and exploded in midair. "What the _Hell?!" _Michelle Rogan asked. She whirled around to see a blond woman in a blue uniform with the biggest gun she had ever seen. She was standing in the window that she had just knocked Alucard through.

"Take this!" she yelled and fired again. Michelle found that she could dodge the missiles that this woman's gun fired very easily, but they were annoying. It was impossible to concentrate on sensing Alucard when she was worrying about this stupidity. A circle of white drops formed around Michelle. The missiles that came toward her were exploded on the circle.

"You stupid bitch!" Michelle snarled. "Don't underestimate me!" she hurled a blood-boomerang at them.

Seras gasped. She couldn't dodge it in time. She was going to get cut in half---but it didn't happen. Instead a shadow seemed to have covered her. At first she thought it was Alucard, but she realized that it was not him at all. A large orange wing was shielding her. Whatever the vampire girl had hurled at her had shattered harmlessly on the dragon wing that had blocked them. Jayden was crouched next to Seras. Jayden's shirt was off and extending from her left shoulder blade, under her bra strap was the wing. It had sprung from the tattoo that covered her whole upper body. Seras _She did this trick…but the tattoo spread a little bit. She did it for me._ _She risked waking Argus…for me._

"Well!" said Michelle. "Jayden Dennis. It's so good to see you again. That tat looks _so _good on you!"

"Michelle" Jayden said. Her face was wet with sweat and her face was twitching. She seemed to be trying to hold something back.

"You two _know _each other?!" Seras yelped.

"Oh, I know Jaybird's family" Michelle laughed.

"Don't call me---_rahhhhrrrgghhh!" _Jayden roared in a dragon's voice. Then she clenched her mouth shut. More sweat ran down her face and the veins in her face and neck stood out. Seras knew she was suffering somehow, but didn't know how to help her.

"We'll be taking back our prize now" said Michelle.

"No, you won't!" Seras yelled and fired at the vampire. Michelle avoided it and it exploded in the air, drenching the balcony with smoke. "I told you not to underestimate me, you stupid snot!" Michelle said. "You're young and weak." She kicked Seras into the wall and grabbed her by the throat.

"Seras!" Jayden screamed. The dragon wing disappeared back into the tattoo. She staggered forward to help, but then clutched her head and screamed in pain.

"Just concentrate on keeping that Dragon under wraps---" Seras said, and Michelle slapped her across the face. The other vampire opened her jaws.

"I'm going to drain you dry, Seras Victoria" she said. "How about that? Your Master drinks other vampires…so why shouldn't I?"

It was then, that Seras came to a startling realization. "You!" she said, looking into Michelle's blue eyes. "You're like me!" she had thought that Michelle was a FREAK, but she now realized how wrong she was. "You're a true turn!"

"Of course" said Michelle. "You didn't think that I was one of _those _did you?" she asked. "Those aren't even real vampires. They're just jumped up humans with a semblance of real power."

"Finally something we agree on" said a cold voice within the smoke. A black figure with blazing red eyes appeared behind Michelle. Quicker than the human eye could follow, the vampire dropped Seras and jumped out of Alucard's way. Before Alucard could respond, she had thrown six white blood-boomerangs. The objects cut into the No Life King, and he went down.

"Thought you could sneak up on me, did you? That's what you---OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!"

The smoke had cleared somewhat and now Michelle could see the thing that she had struck down was not Alucard…not in a true sense at least. A cancerous looking mass of shadow, with eyes in all sorts of random places twitched and writhed from a terrible rip in the center. As she watched, transfixed with horror, the head of a dog emerged from it and began to roar and croak. Its red eyes focused on her and looked at her very soul. "Oh…sweet… Jesus" Michelle muttered as she staggered away from the monstrosity. She bumped into something solid. She turned around to regard Alucard, dressed in his leather outfit.

"Hello" the No Life King smiled. His black leather outfit gleamed in the moonlight that spilled onto the balcony. He leveled his hand and plunged it into Michelle's stomach. A gush of blood spilled out of the other side.

"Ah….urk….agghhhh…." Gray's sister said, her face twitching in surprise. "That…was a low trick." She staggered backwards and flung another barrage of blood-boomerangs at Alucard. The No Life King jumped over them and kicked Michelle in the face. She went flying into the wall hard enough to crack it. Then she jumped off the roof and ran onto the wall, her feet sticking to it like it was regular ground. She ran across it, trying to get away. "Fine…" Michelle panted. Blood gushed from the horrible injury Alucard had inflicted. "You got me once…but you won't get me again."

"Hmmm…" said Alucard, watching Michelle run. "There's something about her. That power she's using…it's not normal ability or anything like it."

"Are you alright, Master?" Seras asked, "Did she actually…"

"I'm fine" Alucard said. He pointed at Jayden who was still twitching on the ground. "See to her" he said. "And make sure that she does not get out of control. If she does…" he didn't need to finish. The No Life King ran across the wall after Michelle.

"Damn it! He's…he's _following me?!" _Michelle gasped. This was _not _part of the plan. "Lady Mina was right" she breathed. "He _is _too powerful for us to take on!" she looked back to see if Alucard was behind her. He wasn't. Relieved, she leaped down onto the front steps of Hellsing Manor. She went to run into the crowd again, when a hand grabbed her arm and bent it backwards, shattering the bone.

"Wha----?!" she gasped in surprise and pain. She whirled around to see Alucard standing there, a smug smile on his face.

"Tell me" he said. "What is this Nightfall you're talking about?"

"Never….talk…"Michelle gritted out. Alucard seized her head and pulled it close to his face.

"That doesn't matter" he said almost gently. "You will tell me_ everything…_with your _life." _His jaws opened revealing his razor sharp teeth. His mouth opened and he bit down on her neck, rending skin, tearing arteries, and ripping tendons.

"_Arggghhhhhhh!" _Michelle screamed and writhed in his hands. But Alucard pulled her firmly to him in an almost passionate embrace.

_Memories, memories of a small town and small town life…skipping through those,_ _revelations of secrets great ones, he sees bars where roasted human flesh and hot blood is served, America, yes this is America where the FREAK chips came from, and now he sees the Nightfall ltd in the Sakar Building in Chicago, and he _knows _he knows who does what and he sees the Gray Men and their purposes…Dragons we will find all the dragons and remake the world with the power of Ershadar, we will make _humans _the slaves of the midians…_

But there was a nagging sensation that Alucard felt, a sensation that distracted him from the images flowing through his consciousness, and from the taste of the cold undead blood that flowed down his throat. It was the taste of the _familiar_. He had tasted this blood before, yes he had somewhere…and then it hit him with such horror and revulsion that he threw the gasping and dazed Michelle Rogan to the ground. The blood that flowed in her vampire veins…it was _his!_ He had done as much as to eat _himself! _Choking and gagging, the No Life King staggered backwards and leaned upon one of the pillars, spitting and cursing trying to rid his mouth of the taste. What _was _this? His blood flowed in Michelle's veins…how was that _possible? _He had not turned her; he hadn't even met this girl until now. Yet she carried his essence almost as surely as Seras.

_Almost. _

Yes, _almost _because it had gone through _another _Great One that had turned her. Alucard must have turned this Great One sometime himself. But how could that be?

Alucard was interrupted by a wail of sirens as the military police arrived on the scene. He could see them getting out of their cars and beginning to descend upon the crowd with angry words and in some casses beatings.

"Youuuuuuuuuuuu!" a voice raged at him suddenly. The vampire turned to see a disheveled gray haired woman running up the lawn toward him. She was brandishing a revlover and she looked as mad as Hell. "You...you helped the Dragon, you son of a btich!" she screamed at him. Alucard sighed to himself...and went to meet Elaine Zephyr head on.


	31. The CalmFor Some

**The Calm…For Some **

**10:45 P.M. Hellsing Manor rooftop**

Seras knelt down next to Jayden. The girl was writhing and shrieking on the ground. Her eyes glowed with an eerie orange light that spilled horribly from under her closed eyes. She hesitantly put her hands on Jayden's bare shoulder and immediately drew back. Though it looked like flushed, sweaty skin…it felt like scales. Seras looked down at Jayden Dennis with a mixture of horror and worry for her condition. "Master" she muttered. "What can I do to help her?"

"If you want to help her, bring her inside!" Walter called from the shattered window. The Angel of Death climbed onto the rooftop balcony and walked over toward them. He lifted Jayden in his arms and proceeded toward the window.

"Wait! Wait for me, Walter!" Seras yelled.

"If you wish to help, then assist the Wild Geese. The fight goes badly for them" Walter called over his shoulder.

"I'll KILL YOU, YOU FUCKING MONSTER! I'LL TEACH YOU TO HELP A MURDERER!!!" Elaine Zephyr yelled as she charged at Alucard. The No Life King regarded the rumpled, raging woman…and unknown to any of them, his eyes softened behind his dark sunglasses. He walked forward slowly down the steps to meet her.

"No Mrs. Zephyr! He'll…_he'll fucking kill you!" _Lauren Denip screamed. The bartender's hair was wild and sticking up. "Get away from him!" she yelled. The crowd gasped and some screamed at their leader to get away from the No Life King. But she paid no attention, lost in a madness that was part vampiric mind control and part human anger and sadness at losing a loved one. Elaine Zephyr had lost her only daughter and had been cheated of her revenge on the one who had done the murder. By this man in the red coat!

"EVIL SPAWN! DEVIL---" Elaine began, but Alucard suddenly gripped her shoulders. His sunglasses disappeared and she found herself looking into his red eyes.

"What is wrong?" he asked.

"My daughter is dead!" Elaine sobbed in anger and sorrow. She beat at Alucard's chest with her fists. "Don't you _see?! She's dead! I'll never see her again!" _

"I know, my dear" Alucard said softly. "She was precious to you, wasn't she?"

"_Yes!" _Mrs. Zephyr sobbed. "But…but that girl…she _killed my Jolene!" _

"But it isn't about Jolene anymore, is it?" Alucard asked, looking into her mad, crazed eyes. "It's only about the killing, isn't it?"

"Yes!" Elaine's eyes flashed red. "Kill the Dragon! Bring it to justice and death! I must---"

Alucard stared into her eyes and whispered softly to her. _Who told you this? Who put this in your head?_

"He said…he said that I could avenge Jolene…" Elaine whispered sulkily like a child who has discovered that she cannot get a toy she has been longing for.

_Who said that, dear one? Who filled your head with such violence and death? Who reached into your soul and made your sadness madness?_

"His name…doesn't matter" she said. "He was just a nice man, a good man who was so sorry about my loss…"

"His name, dear one" Alucard said, speaking with words and not his mind so that all could hear. "Did he tell you to do this?"

"He said that it had to be done…that there was justice to be done and that I would find my peace at last…that girl _has to die!" _she shrieked. As she began to yell, the crowd picked up the chant as well and began to yell it.

"THE GIRL MUST DIE! THE GIRL MUST DIE!"

Alucard looked at Elaine Zephyr. The woman was definitely the victim of mind control and what was worse; someone had hypnotized the crowd as well. It had started with Elaine, but now they were hooked as well. "Forgive me, my dear" he said to her and reached his hand to her forehead. "**Control Art Restriction 2…released" **he said. **"Hold until objective is accomplished." **The hand on Elaine Zephyr's forehead began to darken until it was entirely made of shadow. These shadows began to spread and writhe across the woman's face, engulfing it in a conflagration of darkness and random eyes.

_Now_ Elaine Zephyr began to scream.

_Diving into her mind, now he can see the wheels of her brain turning. Alucard is surprised to see that underneath the shifting red madness of this moment, Elaine Zephyr is quite a sane woman. Ah, but now to the problem at hand. Alucard sees the strings of the mind control, they encircle Elaine's consciousness like white silk spider webs and they are the same grotesque white that the blood-boomerangs that the little brat threw at him. He follows a stray stand of it around and sees that it extends _out _of Elaine, _out _of her mind and into ocean of minds that is the crowd. At first he thinks he will have to undo the bindings on their minds too and groans; he can do it but it will be long and boring. Then he relaxes. The strings are wrapped tightly around Elaine's mind, but they are no more than lightly touching the minds of everyone else. These emanate from her and thus she infected everyone she preached to with her theory of bloody justice---or rather the theory of bloody justice of whoever put these things in her head. Gradually he snips one at a time and eventually the silken strands come undone. Elaine's consciousness, her cold reasonable mind---very much like Integra's actually, he has time to think---expands outward until it fills all the room in her brain, pushing the craziness aside. Alucard withdraws. His work is now_

"Done" he said as he withdrew his hand from Elaine's head. The woman regarded him with a look of dazed confusion.

"Where am I?" she asked. "Hellsing Manor…my daughter…Jolene, is she really dead?" she asks.

"Yes, she is" Alucard said. "And you have done something terrible in your grief and madness…but it is not your fault." He walked past her and looked at the crowd. They were putting down their signs, looking at each other and wandering around like explorers on a new world. He could hear babbles of confusion and people wondering what the Hell they were doing in this place. He turned from them with a smile that quickly became a frown as he looked at the spot where Michelle had been. The girl was gone. "Police Girl!" he called and Seras came running up from behind the manor.

"Master!" she said. "You should have seen it! The Wild Geese were fighting and I was helping and suddenly the mob just stops and starts looking around like they've never seen us before!" she asked timidly, "Did…did you have something to do with it, Master?"

"I did" Alucard said. He turned to his fledgling and looked her over. "And did you do what I asked and protect Jayden?"

"Walter came and got her…he said that I could do best by helping the Wild Geese so I…"

"Excellent work, everyone" said a familiar voice to the far left of the broken gates. Seras turned to see Integra limping up the hill, accompanied by Heinkel…and Father Alexander Anderson of all people!

"Ach" the Irishman said surveying the leveled gates, the charred and blackened stones of the front stairs and the trampled grass and broken windows. "It looks like World War III went on in here. What did ye do, loose control of yer pet?" he asked sneeringly.

"You haven't seen me lose control yet, Judas Priest" Alucard said, his eyes glowing. "But I intend to let you see _everything_ that I can do_." _

_"Enough!" _Integra snapped. She limped over to Alucard and Seras and stood, swaying for a bit. Alucard bit back the urge to help her and hoped that Seras had the god given sense to do the same. Integra was obviously trying to show no weaknesses in front of these people.

"Ve'll see you tomorrow" said Heinkel. "Ve vere actually trying to find you, und give you this information vhen ve saw you being attacked by vampires. You are to meet at the Imperial Var Museum vith Archbishop Maxwell at 1:30 sharp. There are no if, ands or buts about it."

"And if I blatantly refuse?" Integra asked coldly. "What makes Maxwell think I _have _to meet with him?"

"Because if ye don't, then we can always tell the Queen how ye hid Jayden Dennis in yer manor like a sack o' gold" Anderson said.

"You have no proof that Jayden is within the manor" said Integra. "And I _hardly _am going to let you Iscariot pawns in at this moment." She glared at the Iscariot members. "It will be over my _dead body _that you will see the inside of my manor again without an order from the Queen."

"Over yer dead body, ye say?" Anderson asked, rattling his bayonets. Alucard readied his guns.

"I will go" Integra said. "Not because you threatened me, but because I wish to speak with him about several matters that demand attention." She turned away from them, but not all the way. One would be a fool to turn one's back completely on a member of Iscariot. "Seras, Alucard" she said. "I want you two to take care of…our guest while Walter and I are gone. Captain Bernadette will assist if you need any help." She limped away.

"She's a strong one" Heinkel said as she and Anderson walked away from the manor grounds. "For a Protestant, that ist."

Anderson smiled. "That she is, Heinkel" he said. The Irishman slid his glasses up further and smiled evilly. "But make no mistake about it, she'll fall along with the rest o' the sinners down to the fiery pits o' Hell…mark my words, if Maxwell succeeds in his plan come tomorrow."


	32. Invalid Plea

**Invalid Plea **

**Cavel Manor 8:45 A.M Thursday U.K.**

_What does it profit a man to gain power, should he loose his family? _Gray Rogan thought to himself as he paced in the sitting room of the manor. Michelle. That was what had him worried. She had come staggering home last night, a terrible wound in her torso that looked as though someone had thrust his or her hand through her stomach. Michelle explained what had occurred at the Hellsing Manor and the disaster that the mob plan turned out to be. Gray was furious and worried. Damn Michelle and her cockiness! He had warned her about the vampire Alucard! He was one of the Great Ones and someone like Michelle was not ready to face someone of that magnitude of power. Both of them were budding Great Ones, but it would be centuries before their powers matured enough to even be categorized in the same ball park as Alucard. Now, besides the fact that Hellsing was aware of Nightfall, there was another large problem.

Michelle might never live to see her powers equal Alucard's.

She lay in a windowless bedroom where the manor's servants had moved her once she had collapsed in the front hall. The ghastly bite wounds in her neck had healed within hours, but the other one…the other one was another story. Gray had always heard of how Alucard had run his victims through with his bare hand sometimes, and how they would explode afterwards. He affected it to nothing but rumor and hearsay. Now he knew better. The gloves that the No Life King wore had some kind of vampire-killing properties that caused a midian body to break down rapidly. There was a scream from Michelle's room and Gray was roused out of his dark thoughts.

As he flung open the doors, he beheld an awful sight. The manor's servants---all vampire helpers, and human members of Arthur Cavel's branch of Nightfall---were trying to hold Michelle down as she writhed and shrieked on the bed. Michelle's shirt was pulled up and Gray could see that the wound had turned a terrible, ghastly black. As he watched, a red eye opened in this rotted looking blackness and…_winked_ at him. Then it retreated into wherever it had come from. Whatever was in or on the gloves would cause a FREAK vampire to die instantly, Michelle was one of the true undead and therefore she would most likely suffer long and painfully before this was over with. Gray walked over to the bed and asked one of the Gray Men, "How is she?"

"She's not good, sir. She was fine a little while ago…well, at least she was sleeping and then---"

"I'm right _here, _you know!" Michelle screamed at them. She struggled to sit up and failed. "If…if you want to know how I am, why don't you ask _me, _instead?"

"Michelle, I'm glad you're at least able to talk" Gray said, smiling down at his little sister. "Don't worry then, it means you'll probably be fine---"

"A gun. With silver bullets."

Gray looked down at his sister. "What did you say?"

"I said…find…a gun…with silver bullets and...," she moaned as the black spread further on her skin.

Gray thought _she is rotting from the inside out, dear Jesus, Hellsing will pay for this if nothing else, if not for power or dominance, then they will most definitely pay for _this.However, what he said was, "And do what with it?" although he already knew the answer to _that _one.

"Find it and shoot me with it!" Michelle choked out. She fell back on the pillows and groaned again.

"She's been saying that all morning, sir," said one of the servants. "I don't know what to do. I've studied how to treat injured vampires and this goes beyond what I've seen---"

"It would," said Gray. He resumed pacing around the room. "Damn you, Alucard!" he snarled. He thought back to fifty years ago, when he and Michelle were nothing more than dumb mortals who didn't know anything. How lucky they were that they were both virgins! That way, when Mina had attacked them on their way home from taking Michelle to the movies on her birthday, they hadn't wound up as rotting ghouls somewhere. "I won't let anything happen to you," he said to Michelle. "I promised that as your older brother, I would protect you. I will _find _a way to cure you, if I have to tear Hellsing Manor down, brick by brick!" he whirled on the servant who had said something about treating vampires. "You" he said. "What's your name?"

"Tinley sir, Francis Tinley."

"Good" said Gray. "Now, I want you to go out and find some blood bags in the cooler and warm it up. Bring it to Michelle and see that she drinks it all."

"We've tried that already," said the Tinley nervously. "She…she threw up all the blood we gave to her and in terrible pain."

"Already played out, Gray" said Michelle in a weirdly calm voice. "Just give it up and get the gun."

"NO!" Gray roared and smashed his fist into the wall. It went all the way through the plaster. "I will NOT give up on you, and YOU will not give up on this life that Lady Mina gave us! DO…YOU…HEAR…ME?!" he was breathing hard and the hair that constantly covered the left side of his face had slipped around, revealing the burned and forever charred bone that was there instead.

Michelle began to cry softly. "It hurts…" she said.

"I know" Gray snapped. "But you've got to give me---"

_More time? _a smug voice in his head said, finishing his sentence for him. It was a familiar voice. It was a terrible voice. It was

_"Lady Mina?!" _Gray screamed. He raced hurriedly to cover up any thoughts about the coming rebellion, but he knew it was useless.

_Honestly Gray…I expected better out of you. Stirring up a mob and getting your sister in this bad of a condition are hardly the steps to a stable rebellion. _

"Shut up about Michelle!" Gray snarled at the voice in his mind.

_Ha ha, why should I? _Mina asked. _I will be there in a few hours. I'm going there as we speak. I hope to see you all ready…my little fledgling. _


	33. Maxwell's Plans

**Maxwell's Plans**

**10:34 A.M. Imperial War Museum Thursday **

Integra and Walter strode to through the doors of the Imperial War Museum. Between them was a very, _very _unhappy Jayden Dennis.

"Do we _have _to come here?" Jayden asked as they passed the twin cannons that loomed over the steps to the museum. She was wore one of Integra's old dresses, a black sleeveless one with a low neckline that exposed the dips and whirls of the tattoo. It had become different from when Alucard had first seen it. Before, it had been a chaotic whirl of color. Now it was beginning to turn into something recognizable---a dragon. Integra wanted Jayden to wear the dress on purpose. It would show Maxwell just how serious the situation had become.

"We have to come here, because I wish for you to meet Archbishop Maxwell. The entire reason we are here is you, Jayden. Isn't it fair that you should come with us?"

"I guess so," she muttered. She looked at Walter for support, but the butler shrugged.

"Here we are" said Walter as he opened the door for the two women. They entered the gallery and began to look at the pictures.

"I hate this place," Jayden said. She glared at a model of an airplane. She rubbed the tattoo sullenly and sighed.

"Ah! There you are, Sir Hellsing," said a familiar voice as Maxwell strode down the corridor. The museum was mostly deserted at this time of day, so apart from a few school trips, no one was there. Maxwell was wearing surprisingly normal clothes today. He was dressed in a red shirt with a bright red cross on it. He wore blue jeans and Nike sneakers. A gold cross hung around his neck from a rawhide strap and his hair was in its usual ponytail. Next to Maxwell was a woman in a nun's habit with long black hair and glasses. She wore glasses and seemed to almost cringe behind Maxwell as they walked toward the Hellsing party.

"Archbishop Maxwell" said Integra coldly, yet politely. She extended her gloved hand. "It is a pleasure and I am sorry if we kept you waiting."

"That is quite alright," Maxwell said. "I had business to attend to earlier myself. Had you arrived earlier, I might not have been able to greet you."

"And who is this with you?" asked Integra.

"I…I am Yumiko Tagaki" said the nun nervously. She played with a string of her hair. "I am acting as a body guard to the Archbishop right now."

How this pitiful creature served as a bodyguard, Integra didn't know, but if Maxwell saw fit to appoint a nervous nun to guard his safety, who was she to question it? "Right" she said. "Now, let us get to business." She gestured toward Jayden who was looking at another exhibit. "You see, I have brought Jayden Dennis to the meeting."

Maxwell's eyes widened, and Integra thought she saw a glint of greed in them. "Did you?" he asked. "Very, very wise Integral Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing" he said. "Because if you hadn't, I would have reported you to the Queen herself for kidnapping. Just imagine! The Queen's favorite Protestant sow, accused of such a heinous crime and so soon after two others. Allegations of treachery to the Crown during the Incognito incident, and then attacking U.S. diplomats, and then….kidnapping! I don't know how the Hellsing name could survive."

This time it was Walter who responded before Integra could. "That is enough!" the Angel of Death said angrily. "We have agreed to come here, on your terms, Archbishop and Section XIII Director Enrico Maxwell! You have no right to make such insults and threats."

Maxwell's smile was like a slit in a wedge of rotten cheese. "True, true" he said." I understand how you could think that. Perhaps I _am _wrong for saying this. But come, gather young Jayden and let's go somewhere where we won't be disturbed or overheard."

"Very well" said Walter. As he walked past Integra, the butler whispered in her ear, "Be wary of him, my lady. I do not trust that Father Maxwell is being entirely truthful to us. He must have some hidden motive for what he is doing."

"Of course he does" Integra whispered back. "That is exactly why I came here. I want to find out what the Catholic rat is planning."

Walter could not suppress a small smile. Protestant sow and Catholic rat. What a pair.

Maxwell and Yumiko walked down the hallway toward the museum terrace where people could eat there lunch and other meals at small metal tables quietly. "Is the operation set up?" Maxwell asked her.

"Yes it is, Chief" she said. "Father Anderson is already prepared at the attack point and is going to make his move soon. Heinkel is behind him and she's going to go in shooting."

"No" said Maxwell. "I don't want Gray harmed. I want him alive." He grinned to himself. "Integra Hellsing" he tittered. "You are not the only one who will soon have a pet vampire!"


	34. The Pain of Loss

"**The Pain of Loss" **

**10:34 A.M. Cavel Manor **

Gray groaned in sorrow as he sat in the library. After their shouting match in her room, Michelle had slipped into a sort of coma, waking only to make tortured screams of pain and writhe around a bit. He caught himself wondering whether or not to take her advice and end her suffering with a gun. Then he shook his head and dismissed the thought. He could no more kill Michelle than he could run a stake through his own heart. He had not bothered to move his hair back into its usual position over his face, hiding the charred area. Rage burned through him like fire as he thought of Alucard. "I will kill you" he muttered. "I will make you suffer just as much as Michelle has…no, ten times that!" all thoughts of dragons and rebellion, of murder and intrigue had vanished in a single, throbbing red and gray mist of pain and anger. He sensed a car pulling into the driveway of the manor and knew that Mina was here. He didn't care. Let her kill him. That would be so much better than what he was feeling now. He had led his little sister into a situation in which she was now doomed to death. The doors in the front hall were opened and he heard the servants invite Mina inside. Gray slumped down even further on the couch and closed his eye.

"Get up" said a cold voice from the doorway to the library. Gray looked up and sensed Mina before he saw her. She was dressed in black and white dress that showed off her thin figure and black high heels. Her hair hung in glossy curls around her slender neck. Her blue eyes shone with cruel amusement as she saw his tear streaked face. "Are we having a good day, Gray?" she teased as she sat down in one of the reading chairs.

Gray jumped up from the couch. "Shut up!" he roared. "How dare you mock me? My little sister lies in one of these rooms, dying! Do you hear me? _Dying!" _he spat the words at her as if they were pellets of acid. "You have no right to even talk to me in such a tone."

Mina merely looked at him, and her blue eyes no longer shone blue. Instead they glowed red like the Devil. "It is you who has forgotten yourself, Gray. Is this how a fledgling speaks to his Master? I think not." She rose from the chair and walked over to him. Gray stood panting and shuddering. "Yes, I know all about Michelle" she said. "But then again, whose fault is that, eh? Yours, Gray. _All yours." _She knew that was what tormented him most about this whole thing, and she enjoyed whispering her poisoned words into his ears and watching the result. People were like machines, Mina had learned. It was just a matter of pushing the right buttons to get what you wanted.

"I know what happened!" Gray burst out. "I---"

"You plotted against me for years, converted formerly faithful servants of mine with tales of past wrongs I had done, conspired to _kill _me---as if you ever, _ever _could---and then, worst of all, you plotted to use my machine, my very own _invention _to your own ends, with my blood as your key!" she looked at her miserable fledgling. "You are stupid to a fault, Gray. Your bumbling has attracted Hellsing to us…along with _him._ He is going to be a large problem if he drained Michelle's blood and gained her memories and knowledge about our activities in America."

"M…Michelle said that he threw her away after a few minutes…he didn't get all that much" Gray managed.

"So Alucard got a taste of his own blood, did he?" his Master mused to herself. Mina turned to Gray and her eyes faded back to blue. "That's all it is, you know. The blood that I gave you is merely a diluted version of his blood. The blood of Vlad Tepes Dracula---alias, Alucard."

Gray felt his knees tremble at the implications of this. This was…impossible! "He…_he_ is Dracula?" Gray asked. "How can that be possible? You…you of all people should know that…that…"

"That Abraham Van Helsing killed him? How are you so sure? Is not Alucard the most powerful vampire lord to ever exist? Was not Dracula? What makes you so sure they are not the same person?" she hissed. "You're not. So stop looking like a landed fish."

"What about Michelle?" Gray asked hesitantly.

"Why would I care about a Breaker?" Mina asked. "They're nothing but trouble anyway. A fledgling that's resistant to her Master's mental probes and orders…is not the kind of vampire I want under my wing."

Gray never knew what it was that made him overcome his ego (which was _quite _large) and do this, but he found himself suddenly on his knees. "Please!" he begged. "I'll do anything. Just….just heal my sister! I know it is within your power, Lady Mina. _Please, she's the only family I have!" _

"Hmmm…" said Mina. "Gray, I will accept your apologies anytime, but I think you need to be taught a lesson. And what better way to teach someone a lesson than the pain of loss?"

"Please…don't do this…" he begged her. "I'll…be your slave or anything else you want…just help her. She's dying in agony. Even if it just to end it swiftly, I beg you, just do _something!" _

"Oh, I'll help her" said Mina and she walked past Gray. "Get up, Gray" she said. "I'm going to have a lot of jobs for you to do. Remember something though. After this, you are _mine, _body and whatever ruins of your soul. You will obey my every whim and word and do whatever I tell you to do without question. Is that clear?"

Gray hesitated for a minute, a minute that seemed to stretch into eternity. Should he do it? Should he bind himself totally and truly to Mina's hostile, odious will? It would mean doing many unpleasant things, he knew. Gray Rogan had no qualms about killing and destruction, but he wanted to be his own free person when he did those things. But there was Michelle to consider…

"I'll do it" he said. Still on his knees, he lowered his head to the carpeted floor.

"Rise, fledgling" Mina said. "Follow me to your sister's room and I will heal her as you asked. I do have the power." Mina walked past him and Gray staggered to his feet, his mind racing. Michelle could be saved! But as for himself…But that didn't matter, he scolded himself. He could figure out what to do about this later. As Mina threw open the door of Michelle's room, Gray almost gagged at the smell of rot and decay that filled the room. Michelle lay on the bed. The skin unaffected by Alucard's terrible poison had turned a horribly gray color and Gray could see that the rot had spread all the way over her torso and over her arms and legs. The blackened, dead skin was speckled with little red blisters. Blisters that looked like mocking, red eyes.

"….Gray?" Michelle croaked. "I…have…great news" she choked. "Th…Allies are…winning…we finally got 'em back for…Pearl…Harbor…." She moaned and began to thrash on the bed and Gray saw the skin begin to crack and a black liquid poured out. It began to eat away at the sheets of the bed.

"Hurry!" he said to Mina. She looked at him coldly and he fell silent, though his hands shook and sweated.

"Hello, Michelle" said Mina as if this were nothing more than a casual visit.

Michelle saw Mina smiling down at her and looked at Gray in terror. Gray knew that if he lived to be a million years old, he would never forget the way her eyes rolled toward him in pure fear like a hog in the slaughterhouse. Mina laid her hand on Michelle's forehead like a concerned mother feeling for a fever. "You're not feeling well right now, are you Michelle?" she asked.

"I've been better" Michelle croaked.

Mina withdrew her hand and a patch of skin the size of a dollar stuck to it. Michelle shrieked. Gray started toward them, but Mina held up her hand and he stopped. Mina held her wrist above Michelle. "I can heal you, Michelle" she said softly. "I have that power. But I want you to do something first."

"What is that?" Michelle asked. Gray could see that she was fighting to stay in the realm of reason and not drift off into delirium.

"I want you to agree to serve me in all ways…just as your brother has. You will obey me without complaint or question."

"Wait a minute!" Gray snarled. "You never said anything about this. You said it was _me_, not my sister!"

"I have to cover all loose ends" Mina said. "What prevents your sister from starting a rebellion. While your attempts to dethrone me are insignificant and annoying at most, they have caused a valuable prize, Jayden Dennis, to slip from my grasp." Her eyes glittered. "And _that, _above all other things makes me angrier than you can believe." Gray backed away from her. Though Mina Harker's words were calm, an aura of power shimmered around her. He could almost see its dark light. "Now" she said, turning from Gray to his bedridden sister. "Time runs short Michelle. What do you choose? Life as I gave it to you, or this miserable wasting death, which I assure you will last for several days before you eventually die."

Michelle raised her head from the pillows. Gray could see that this effort was taking much of her rapidly waning strength. "I…I…" she muttered something.

"I'm sorry" Mina said. "I didn't catch that, sweetie."

"I said…I accept."

"Excellent!" Mina said and pushed Michelle down to the pillows again. "Now" she said. "Open your mouth, fledgling." Michelle obeyed and Mina held her wrist above Michelle's open jaws. With one nail, Mina Harker opened a vein in her wrist. Dark, cold blood spurted out of the wound in a spray. Michelle made a small whining noise and jumped up to catch the spray. It hit her full in the mouth and she drank, and drank, and drank. Gray watched, astounded as his sister's disease began to retract, leaving healthy, untouched tissue in its place.

"This can't be happening" he muttered to himself. "What the Hell is all this…."

"This is the beginning of Nightfall's triumph" Mina said as she turned to Gray. "Now, servant here are your orders. On the grounds of this manor are two agents from Section XIII the Vatican. I want you to go with them to meet a man named Enrico Maxwell."


	35. Dragon Disaster

**Dragon Disaster **

"So tell me, Sir Hellsing" said Maxwell as he sipped his tea. "How are you feeling? I heard from Heinkel and Father Anderson that you were attacked last night. And to come to the museum and back in your condition…shocking! Broken ribs I heard."

Integra stuck a cigar in her mouth and blew the smoke out through clenched teeth. "Archbishop Maxwell" she said. "That is actually something I mean to talk to you about." The three of them---Jayden, Integra, and Maxwell---were sitting on a small, empty veranda sipping tea at the Hellsing Manor. Integra loathed to have these people in her house, but she took comfort in the fact that Maxwell was eager enough to have a meeting with her to accept her terms. She had convinced him at the Imperial Museum that it was too public a place to bring a creature like Jayden and the fact that she herself was injured and needed to stay near home. The sun shone down on the stones of the veranda and the gentle wind blew the lacy white tablecloths softly.

"_What _do you need to talk about?" Maxwell asked softly. During the entire meeting, his eyes had never left Jayden's body. Integra had felt the urge several times to make nasty jibes regarding pedophile priests---but she knew deep inside that it would not be appropriate for two reasons. Reason No.1: Maxwell wasn't interested in Jayden in that sort of way. He wanted what was _inside _of her mind and the thing that could kill them all in one fell swoop if it wished to. Reason No.2: Maxwell was crazy.

It had taken Integra more time than she expected to leap to that conclusion, but she realized that it was the truth. Everything about the Iscariot Director marked him as mentally unstable, from the way his gloved hands played nervously with the silverware, to the way his pale eyes darted and shifted wildly to and fro when he thought no one was watching. One did not mess with the insane unless they had a damn good reason.

"We need to discuss an organization known around the civilized world as Nightfall" Integra said. She slammed her teacup into its saucer with more force than she had wished for. "When we met earlier to discuss Jayden, you did not mention a single thing about Nightfall. Yet, I found out about it from Parley Dennis, who is an _enemy." _

"Hey!" Jayden said. "Don't talk about my dad that way. He's a brave person and---" Integra raised her hand to silence the girl.

"I was _attacked _and almost killed by agents of this organization, while more of them raised a mob to attack my manor. And all of this could have been avoided or at least prepared for if Section XIII had shared some simple information." She bit through her words as if they were tough pieces of meat, making her words clipped and harsh.

Maxwell's response was merely a smile that carved through the flesh-colored mask of his face. "Sir Integra, you really aren't being rational" he said. His eyes flashed over to Jayden. "When we first visited your…_charming_ home, you gave no indication you had anything to do with any of this. To that end, we regarded you as a mere bystander for all of this, someone who was only lightly involved and therefore not needing to know sensitive information. Now, if you had _told _us that you kidnapped Jayden Dennis from her home and were holding her prisoner within your manor than we may have handled things differently."

"Handled them a different way?" Integra said. "Archbishop, I find it interesting that even though you had 'no idea' as you say, that I was hiding Jayden within the manor, that you even called this meeting and had your best operatives rescue me from Nightfall." Integra slammed her hand on the table, making cups shake. "Answers! I want them. What do you really want, and what do I have to do with it?"

Maxwell said nothing for a while. Then he sipped his tea pensively. Integra knew he was stalling for time, waiting for an idea of how to throw her off the track. Well, she wasn't going to stand for it. "Out with it" she said. "I have no patience for this kind of nonsense. _What do you want?" _

Maxwell finally spoke. "We wish…" he looked at Jayden. She had changed out of the borrowed black dress and into jeans and a long sleeved white sweatshirt that hid the Argus tattoo very well. "We wish a deal with Hellsing. While I know that relations between our organizations---and religions---have not been what they could be over the past few centuries, I want to be the first to say that I will not let it stand." He drew himself up in a sigh as if he were debating the fate of the world itself. "Sir Integra" Maxwell said, "I am going off record to say this. I am going against His Holiness's wishes in doing this. I want to come to Hellsing with this request as a friend. Not as the director of Iscariot, but as a _friend_ of you Protestants."

"What is that request?" Integra asked warily. She was completely surprised by Maxwell's statement---and just as completely disbelieving of it. _Enrico Maxwell_, a friend of Protestants and _Hellsing? _Oh, please. Still, she thought, it would be good to hear what he had to say and see just how much truth she could ascertain from the lies.

Maxwell looked at Jayden. "The girl, Jayden Dennis has within her a malevolent spirit, something that is not in the keeping of God's law and His creations…we wish for you to permit us to take the girl to Rome with us and allow us to exorcise the demon."

"Dragon" Integra said.

"I'm sorry Sir Hellsing? I don't follow?"

"It is a dragon spirit and you know it. The power of Ershadar that creates and destroys…Archbishop, what kind of fool do you take me for?" she looked at Jayden. "Besides" Integra said, a small, grim smile appearing on her face. "Isn't it time we let _Jayden _do the talking?"

Maxwell opened his mouth to say something, but Integra cut him off. "I'm sure you would agree. After all, you're very interested in her aren't you? You've barely taken your eyes off of him this entire meeting. I feel jealous."

Maxwell's face flushed an ugly red and he looked as if he wanted to tear Integra's head off and bury it in a heap of horse dung. But then he regained his composure.

"Can you exorcise it?" Jayden asked suddenly. Integra looked at the girl who was starting at Maxwell with an odd look in her eyes. "I would be grateful for that." She suddenly looked around as if there were people hidden in the bushes. "He's there, at the back of my mind…sleeping. I don't know when he'll wake up. The last time he did, he made me do something terrible" Jayden's voice broke and Integra was startled to see tears in the corners of her eyes.

_So much for our heartless child killer_ she thought tiredly. She found that she liked this meeting less and less. She wanted to go to her office, work on some reports, take some pain meds and go to bed. That _wasn't _a good sign. She wondered if she was getting too old for this job already.

"We _can_ exorcise you, young lady" Maxwell said. He looked at Integra. "Well, Sir Hellsing? Will you allow us to let some of God's light into this girl's blighted soul?"

Integra looked long and hard at Jayden. "Do what you will" she said softly.

The leer that Maxwell produced was unspeakable in its lunatic joy. He jumped up from the table and grabbed Jayden's arm. The girl did not protest at all. Later on, Integra wondered why she hadn't _noticed _this. This was the biggest sign of all that something was wrong. _Why hadn't Jayden put up a fight? _But it was too late for that.

"Before we can let God back into your soul Jayden, I must be sure that you are full of sorrow and regret for your grievous sins against Him." He knelt down before Jayden. "Jayden" he whispered softly. "Are you sorry about what you did to the children?"

Jayden was silent for a while. Then, "The children were tasty" she growled. Her eyes flared with orange light.

"_What?!" _Integra screamed and jumped up from the table as well. Jayden's body was engulfed in a flood of orange light.

_"NO!" _Maxwell's face twisted in rage more than fear. The Iscariot director ripped the golden crucifix from his neck and lunged toward the light. "Can you say hallelujah Jayden Dennis?" he snarled.

"_MAXWELL, NO! YOU IDIOT CATHOLIC, STAY AWAY!" _Integra screamed at him. But it was too late. As soon as Maxwell's cross touched the flaming orange light, his body burst into flames.

There was a hideous scream and a smell of burning meat. Integra felt her stomach roll with horror as it hit her nostrils. It wasn't because it was disgusting---it was because it made her feel hungry!

**"FREE!" **said the entity that emerged from the glowing cocoon. It was too bright to look at completely, but it seemed to have a dragon like shape. It was made entirely of orange light that looked radioactive. Strange sigils and designs ran over this apparition like oil shifting over water. **"PUNY LITTLE MORTAL. DID YOU ACTUALLY THINK THAT YOU COULD OVERRIDE **_**ME**_** WITH YOUR PATHETIC CROSS-BRANDISHING ACTS? NO!" **The monster began to rain balls of orange energy down upon the terrace. Integra scrambled under one of the tables for cover. She saw one of the balls slam near the table, leaving a burned and blackened trail behind.

"What do you want?" Integra yelled at it. For some lunatic reason she didn't particularly feel fear. She felt as if she were protected by some kind of other Force. It wouldn't let anything happen to her---as long as she served its goals. What she felt instead was a kind of dismay that the manor grounds, which were still recovering from the mob disaster just last night, were being ravaged again. She looked out of the corner of her eye and saw a glowing, flaming and shrieking mass of flame and embers that used to be Enrico Maxwell. It reached one of the overturned chairs, tripped and fell on the floor, screaming and rolling.

**"MY MATE, MARACHUT HAS BEEN IMPRISONED FOR TOO LONG. I WILL HAVE HER BACK…OR ELSE." **

"Or else what?" Integra asked. "Fight him, Jayden!" she screamed at it.

**"JAYDEN? OH, YES THE LITTLE SHRIEKER. SHE WAS A PATHETIC HOST…I HELD OUT FOR AS LONG AS HER PUNY BODY COULD ENDURE…BUT NOW I WILL FEED FREELY, NO LONGER CONFINED IN YOUR HOUSE!" **the thing took off, flapping its ethereal wings against the sky.

Integra was vaguely aware that Maxwell had stopped moving and was now burning merrily and still.

"This is so _WRONG!" _Integra yelled. She ran back to the house to tell everyone what they already knew.

All Hell had broken loose upon London.

Literally.


End file.
